Before my time. Father was in the Pacific on a formerly Japanese held island. Lot of that went on according to him. He was and still is a big fan of "General MacAuthur". Felt losses would have been much greater with others in charge. Marines had to do the job they got and my father says Mac kept moving ahead and did not waste men on what he considered stupid moves. He was there so I will give him the right to say anything he wants about Mac, the marines and the navy.

Three uncles were in the European theater. Two on my mothers side and one on my father side. One was assigned as a driver to SHEAF in London and stayed there till the Battle of the Bulge. Then he was given a rifle and sent to the front. God he hated cold to his dying day. Guess he hoped the "soft duty" would last until the end of the war.

Second uncle went ashore at 11:00 on D-day. Saw action for two weeks until wounded and evacuated for about two months. Just got back to France about two months later and saw very limited duty after that. He was in Southern France area and missed almost the entire rest of the war to hear him tell it. But unless I miss my guess he was just a little closer to the front than he admits as his metals earned could not have all come from two weeks of duty. Most likely he, like a lot of others would like to forget a lot of what happened.

Third uncle went ashore in the first wave. He said his landing craft got in without any major problems but the next three waves were just about wiped out. Seems the Germans had them under constant fire, arty, heavy mortar and machine gun fire for hundred of yards before they hit the beach. A lot of men never got out of the landing craft alive. He did mention that he sure saw and heard enough action in the first few hours to last him for several lifetimes. Potato masher grenade cost him the hearing in his left ear, a part of his nose and some of the hearing in his right ear.

I never bothered asking these men for lots of battle stories. Ghost and dead buddies had been at rest for far to long for me to dredge them up. Now the uncles are all dead and with them go a lot of pain and what I suspect was shared terror from that day. Watching the movie Private Ryan was as real as any footage that my father had ever watched he said one night. Only things missing was smoke, the smell of blood and crap and men asking for their mothers or crying after being hit and the smell of fear. No one wanted to die.

To the men who endured all this Hell I can only say you have my lifetime respect and thanks. If the elected officials displayed on tenth of the guts and courage that these men had that day this nation would be a far better place.