80th Anniversary of D-Day June 6th

[Timewise 60+]

My late father turned 18 on January 3, 1945, he was in high school which he did not complete. He was drafted in January and in March he found himself marching into Germany along with the 97th Infantry Division. He was in a couple of 'battles' as he described it, before he was wounded when a bridge, they were approaching was blown up by enemy artillery. His wounds were primarily in his ancles and feet and were not life threatening. But he was not able to walk for some time. Therefore, he was not exposed to any additional battle. He was proud of his time in the service but did not like to talk about it.

 

[TennVet]

My Dad saw combat in New Guinea and the Philippines. He was a tank commander (Sgt) and ended up occupying Japan for 6 months. According to my Mom and Aunt, he had nightmares almost every night for the first few years.

He (like a lot of Vets) joined the VFW and the AMVETS and spent a lot of time there. Those were the places he could share stories and unload to others with similar experiences.

I heard the "non-horror" stories a number of times when I was a kid, but never the serious ones. However, I witnessed a couple of episodes where Dad got drunk (NOT a regular think) with some friends and he fell apart telling of some pretty horrible stuff.

One of the ones I will share here is when he was in the Philippines, in his tank, and there was a rap on the side. It was a buddy of Dad's, and he asked for a carton of cigarettes (stored in the tanks). Dad passed him a carton and immediately closed the hatch.

Right after, there was an explosion that shook the tank. Dad opened the hatch and saw just bits and pieces of his friend, who apparently got a direct hit from a mortar shell.

How in the world does someone deal with that???

Most who experienced those things held it inside, and that is to our detriment. I never opened up about those things till after I retired. My wife said being a work-acholic allowed me to suppress it all, abut she knew more than others. Then one day a buddy asked me when I was their (referring to Vietnam), without thinking I responded last night, this morning, a few minutes ago. That was a wake up for me. I have since gotten valuable counselling and spent time bringing some of it forward so I could deal with it. That buddy's question opened a door for me.

 

[TennVet]

I had a thread about Google celebrating Pride rather than honoring D-Day as their daily cartoon. If you are a curmudgeon, so am I.

I don't care one way or another if there is a pride day or month, whatever. I just felt like the focus, especially for a center whose mission is to care for veterans was out of place. Many of the Veterans of D-Day won't see another anniversary of the occurrence and certainly won't see the 90th memorialization of the event. I felt that the 80th memorial of D-Day should have been the greater focal point. Call me crazy I am what I am.