The end of the war

[Plawranc]

I heard a cool story the other night on a documentary called Dig:WW2


There was a Canadian infantry unit that had fought through Normandy all the way through Holland and then into Germany. Fighting non stop.

They eventually reached the east west line with the Russians at the end of the war. They were sitting around on the last day of the war, when their commanding officer approached them.

"Men, its been a long war, but this afternoon, an armistice will be signed with the Germans, followed by a peace treaty"

there was no cheering... simply silence... until one of the Canadians spoke up

"F***ing Hell lads.... we are all unemployed"

[RedBull1]

 

[cpxxx]

Very good, I often wonder though. The rest of their lives must have been something of an anti climax. To have seen and done so much by your early twenties and then to go back to their ordinary lives.

Come to think of it, there must be vets who contribute here, who must have experienced something similar in recent wars. 

[MarineUS]

 

[danny76]

Very good, I often wonder though. The rest of their lives must have been something of an anti climax. To have seen and done so much by your early twenties and then to go back to their ordinary lives.

Come to think of it, there must be vets who contribute here, who must have experienced something similar in recent wars.  

I would suggest most look at WW2  and flying in particular through rose coloured specs. Truth is I imagine that most simply wanted it over with and to get safe home to their families. A huge percentage of servicemen and women have long and successful careers until they spend time in combat and almost straight away retire. This applies to special forces, pilots, para's and other exceptionally motivated and highly trained personnel. Very few individuals do more than a couple of combat deployments at the most.
In all out war the guys had to stay on till the job was done, even then the powers that be recognised that few individuals if any are capable of dealibg with extended periods of such stress levels and rotated them out of combat duties.
I would suggest any anti climax would be very welcome.

[Grayeagle]

First .. I enlisted.
Got my draft notice while I was in USAF basic.
Then ..when I was able to, I volunteered to go to Southeast Asia.

I could look my dad in the eye any day (he served in Patton's 3rd, was there on D-Day etc)
..and yes .. I kinda despised those who blew off their obligations.

I was not 'tip of the spear' type at all, yet ..workin the flightline, end of runway, here n there as an ECM troop..
...I saw my fair share of aircraft converted to scrap metal, some crew survived, some did not.
Peacetime, wartime, there are no easy days on the flightline.
PCS, TDY, you will report to such-and-such at time and place, no saving throw.
Oh-Dark-Thirty mobility exercises that you had no idea was an exercise until the very end,
..gear on pallets, planes waiting on the ramp ready to go.

Udorn had snipers on the perimeter,
 .. was there when NATO HQ got blown sky high at Ramstein (woke me up)
..and other fun and frolic.

After I got out, I remember vividly being caught by surprise when the balloon went up for Desert Storm
by a feeling of releif of all things ..I did not have to go.
I was *out* of it.. someone else's turn to carry on.

-just sayin (tm Pasha)

-GE aka Frank

[Tank-Ace]

Very good, I often wonder though. The rest of their lives must have been something of an anti climax. To have seen and done so much by your early twenties and then to go back to their ordinary lives.

Come to think of it, there must be vets who contribute here, who must have experienced something similar in recent wars. 

I've thought this as well. To live with the hurry, the haste, the danger, and the sheer magnitude of the task you've been given, for literal years, and then go back to building houses.

While I've never had the experience, and likely never will, I imagine that life would seem just kind of half full for a while, after fighting in such a conflict.

[Grayeagle]

Tank-Ace (and others) ..

All the hurly-burly of any kind of civilian *crush* to make a deadline
..just did not compare to a single mission launch workin end-of-runway when our F-4's were bound for Saigon area during it's fall.
Flight of 4 Phantoms, loaded w/2000lb snakeyes, engines runnin, all armed up, my load crew was called out because Lead had an ECM pod failure indicated.
We swapped the ECM pod out of the left fwd missile well with the Wing Commander standing right off my right shoulder in 2 minutes,
ops checked good and we got the heck outta the way.

Any minor mistake could have been fatal for all involved. Tappin the nose of that snake eye .. oh yaa.
Did the deed, not a single wasted motion, birds launched, no mistakes.

*Nothing* else ever came close to being that tense
.. people useda comment that I did not seem to take *crunch* modes seriously
.. I asked how many would die if we failed to make the deadline?

Just couldn't see sweatin the small stuff.. yanno?

-Frank aka GE