VE day

[badsection]

Victory in Europe Day!  A friend's granny saved all this and now he has it, from Bradford PA. , where they still make Zippo lighters. 

[TexWeatherby]

Cool. That war was a terrible time for our country; both my dad and his dad were there. A lot of folks don't know anymore that Nazi u-boats were operating right off our shores. Many coastal cities stayed dark at night because of that. We did sink some of those subs.

[badsection]

My 98 year old neighbor can tell you about  the black outs and coastal observation towers right here in Florida. There were a few of those towers still on the coast of Delaware. I had 5 uncles in that war, one never made it home.

[TexWeatherby]

8 ships were sunk near you Kevin:
http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/the-enemy-presence-german-u-boats

[badsection]

Jupiter inlet is just a few miles north of me!  Pretty interesting, Tex.  It seems to me that there was a captured U-boat on display at the Fields Museum in Chicago that I saw as a kid before moving the D.C. area.  That and the lions from "the Ghost and the Darkness" I remember pretty well.   

[eford]

My mom grew up in Portland, Oregon during WWII. Grandpa was a civil defense coordinator, which meant he had to check on blacked out windows so the Imperial Japanese navy couldn't see lights from the homes if they flew over or were scanning via periscope off shore.  My dad was a farm kid during the war. Farmers had lots of fuel to raise crops and cattle to feed the millions in uniform, but he was too young to be in the war, unlike his older brother who flew USAAC B-24s in the South Pacific.  My parents still talk about "the war" and I know exactly which one they are referring to.

I was lucky enough to wade ashore on Omaha Beach in 1988. The tide was high, the water was cold, and I knew I was on sacred ground.

[badsection]

Cool story, eford!  My USMC uncle Jack was walking off Iwo Jima as the USA was marching in to occupy the island. His brother, my uncle Frank, was in that USA group marching in and they saw each other....  My Uncle Leo spent the war on a destroyer, escorting convoys across the Atlantic. He always said he would never get on a boat again. 

[PARA45]

Cool story gents.  When I was on the base honor guard, we were performing funeral detail on WW-II.  I also read  that those great vets were dying throughout the US at a rate of about 1000 of them a day. Not many of them are left.  What a great generation, and we owe them so much to them.  God bless them all.

[musicman]

I sent out a VE Day email to my regular email group, honoring ALL of The Greatest Generation, and for ALL of their efforts, even those that "fought the war," Stateside, by manning the factories, growing the crops, civil defense groups, etc.  A colleague sent me a quote back, that I wanted to share, and then a contribution to that quote.  He did not attribute the quote to any individual:

"The fires of Hell forge the blades of righteousness,"....
.... but unfortunately, many "blades" today are made of plastic, and melt.  MM

[Huntnmachine]

My grandfather fought in France and Italy and was wounded twice. Once with a bullet through his elbow and second was shrapnel from a hand grenade.
When he got home after the war grandpa told all of the kids "you can ask me one question each about the war and then I will never talk about it again" dad said he was a man of his word and never spoke of it again.


Terry