Does anyone else here actually remember 12/7/41 ??

dont take this the wrong way but dang wish my grandpa posted on TD. If he was a live that is.

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So sad to me that the generation that experienced WWII first hand is vanishing.

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Father Time is a cruel a-hole.

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wish my grandpa posted on TD.

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As do I.

My cohort was missing from WWII. My dad and FIL served in WWI. As did my uncles. My brother served in Korea, as did most of my cousins. My generation served in Vietnam.

I had one cousin - called him "uncle" because he was such good friends with my dad - who actually did serve in WWII, but he never made to to any combat zone - entered service at the very end of the war.

My entire youth was consumed with the war effort. Lived in Vernon Parish, home of Ft Polk (called Camp Polk back then) Had maneuvers all around our place out in the country. Mom opened a boarding house to serve the people brought to Leesville for the construction buildup at the Camp.

Later when we moved back to our rural country place, lots of soldiers came to our house for supper - Mom was a great cook and dad made friends with all of the soldiers. The night before they decamped one group asked us if we wanted anything. Dad asked for some barbed wire. Next morning he had a mountain of barbed wire piled up next to the barn. I spent the next ten years of my life helping string that stuff up around our property.

I asked for - and I still don't understand why - some K-rations!!!! They left me at least a half dozen cases of the stuff. Several decades later I opened some of it up and it was still edible - used it on hunting trips.

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ChineseBandit58

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Great stories, thanks for sharing

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I was 3 years old and this stands out as my first unambiguous memory

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My father was also 3 years old that day. He was born in October of 1938. He says he doesn't remember it. But he does remember the mobilization. And all the men in uniform. And the radio constantly with war news.

His father was a farmer. So he had a farmer exemption from the draft until the summer of '45 when they were raising an additional 5 million men for the invasion of Japan. So his dad went off to boot camp, but was sent home when Japan surrendered.

He says he vividly remembers his father walking through the door in his uniform in Sept of 1945.

it was 42 years before my time and it was 10 years before my father's time.

My grandmother lived about ten miles from the Pacific coast in Oregon. In the first few months after Pearl Harbor, there was a real fear of a Japanese invasion on the west coast. She said it was a fearful time, and her older brothers feared it enough that they made preparations to go up in the mountains and fight if the Japanese had actually invaded. They all enlisted later on (two Army Air Force, one Army, one Marine) and all served overseas. I was fortunate enough to grow up knowing these men, as well as my grandfather who was in the USAAF, and they were willing to share their stories. My grandmother became a WAC, learned Morse code, and decoded messages for the military. She said the typing skills she learned then is what prepared her for her later career as a school secretary at Covington High.

My first hazy memory like that was for the moon landing. I don't remember much about it as I was wasn't quite 3, but I do remember my mom sitting my brother and I in front of an old black and white television and telling us how important this event was.