A Dirt Marine's Words..

[midnight Target]

My Father-in-Law was a Pac theater marine during WW2. He recently wrote a bunch of his memories down, not all of them were about the war, but I gleaned a few gems from the pile.

He was on Guam in 1944. I guess fighting was still going on on the island at the time. He was with a group of 6 men at the top of a ridge when a japanese mortar round landed nearby. All 6 were wounded, John (father-n-law) worst of the lot with a badly damaged elbow. The medic treated him 1st....

"He (the medic) treated me 1st I guess because I was a little worse off than the rest. When he was done he had my arm wrapped in a big WHITE bandage. I could walk, so I was sent back to the field hospital on foot. As I was walking down a ravine a Jap (he uses this word a lot) machine gun opened up on me. I ran all the way to the hospital and I was under fire almost the whole way. There was a guy behind me, I guess they adjusted their elevation after I went through because he was hit in the foot. I stayed in the field hospital for a while, then went by Higgins boat (I was surprised he called it a Higgins boat) to the Solace, a hospital ship. At the ship my wounds were treated more thoroughly, and my arm was wrapped in a CAMOFLAGE bandage!! If only that damn medic had used camoflage I wouldn't have had to run through that ravine."

[AKIron]

Interesting story, white bandage, what were they thinking?

[Cobra]

Cool MT.

It's funny how it's those kind of details that stick out in their minds.

I have 2 Uncles that flew during the war (1 now deceased), and whenever they would recall stories from that time, it was always those quirky details they would retell.

The one still living flew B-25's, and the story he tells the most is what happened during B-25 training and how one of the pilot's girlfriend wrote him a Dear John letter, so the guy grabs a BT-13 trainer that was on the field, takes it up and then proceeds to drill a big hole in the ground.  He said it stands out for 2 reasons....1.) He couldn't believe the guy did that over a Dear John letter, and 2.) the Base CO made his training class all go to the crash site to watch them retrieve the remains of the pilot through the firewall.

It's this incident during training that sticks out....weird.

The other Uncle (now deceased) flew B-24's, got shot down even, if I recall correctly (I'll have to check with my Dad to see to verify that).  Anyway, the biggest griping he used to do was about SAC.  After the war, he got a job with Getty as a Corporate Pilot, but he stayed in the Air Force Reserves for the extra pay check.

When they formed SAC, they called him up...(no choice for him), because of his bomber experience, so he flew B-47's then.  Luckily Getty held his job after his 3 year (I think it was 3..could have been 2 year) hitch.

Unfortunately, neither relative wrote any of this stuff down.

Cobra

[Apache]

Originally posted by Cobra
Cool MT.

It's funny how it's those kind of details that stick out in their minds.

I have 2 Uncles that flew during the war (1 now deceased), and whenever they would recall stories from that time, it was always those quirky details they would retell.

The one still living flew B-25's, and the story he tells the most is what happened during B-25 training and how one of the pilot's girlfriend wrote him a Dear John letter, so the guy grabs a BT-13 trainer that was on the field, takes it up and then proceeds to drill a big hole in the ground.  He said it stands out for 2 reasons....1.) He couldn't believe the guy did that over a Dear John letter, and 2.) the Base CO made his training class all go to the crash site to watch them retrieve the remains of the pilot through the firewall.

It's this incident during training that sticks out....weird.

The other Uncle (now deceased) flew B-24's, got shot down even, if I recall correctly (I'll have to check with my Dad to see to verify that).  Anyway, the biggest griping he used to do was about SAC.  After the war, he got a job with Getty as a Corporate Pilot, but he stayed in the Air Force Reserves for the extra pay check.

When they formed SAC, they called him up...(no choice for him), because of his bomber experience, so he flew B-47's then.  Luckily Getty held his job after his 3 year (I think it was 3..could have been 2 year) hitch.

Unfortunately, neither relative wrote any of this stuff down.

Cobra

Cobra, you post...nah, this one doesn't qualify.

I your uncles...and you as well old friend.