My Dad lost a cousin on Anzio. We didn’t talk about it much. Dad scarcely talked about his own service.My gun show buddy Carl had his Jeep carrier blown out from under his ass later in the war, when the Yamato got its guns trained on it, in the battle off Samar. Again, didn’t talk much about it. As I was sitting here it occurred to me that Carl said he had to tread water for a few days after he went through that, but, that is about all I ever heard about it, other than the Navy carrier designation CVE really meant “Combustable, Vulnerable, and Expendable”, to him and his shipmates.
The Greatest Generation also happened to be the quietest. Not many left.
God bless ‘em.
Best,
Ted
