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Trip Report Readers Chick Chat and Guy Gabbing Thread!
- Thread starter MickeyCB
- Start date
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Happy Star Wars day!!
Love your hat.View attachment 856873Happy (rainy) Derby!
Brought 7 high school / college girls so I am reading trip reports on the forums to pass this last hour because I am OVER the infield life!. I aged out of this area 20 years ago.
Luckily the girls are having a blast!
I have a wedding to attend in Nashville this weekend, and I have a hat that I’d love to wear if people still do that at weddings.
erstwo
Well-Known Member
Thank you! It’s from Amazon. Can’t take the nice ones out in the rain and I didn’t feel like wrapping a nice one up in its own poncho (so many did though!)
I’m not quite back at the wedding stage of life (give me about 4 years) so I have only been to one or two the past 5 years. Not really sure what people wear now - but life is short, might as well wear the hat of you want!
Tiki Traveler
Well-Known Member
View attachment 856873Happy (rainy) Derby!
Brought 7 high school / college girls so I am reading trip reports on the forums to pass this last hour because I am OVER the infield life!
One of my children was in the infield w/their friends and feels the same way you do! I think it was a combination of bad weather and a very long day….
DH and I visited on a regular race day and toured the museum years ago. Those mint juleps are strong!
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Wicked Sisters
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Our dad has pride of place for VE Day. He was 17-18 years old here as he lied about his age to join like a lot of young men then.
Tuvalu
Premium Member
Woody’s dad lied about his age too!
He was also the recipient of a Purple Heart.
RememberWhen
Well-Known Member
That’s a beautiful portrait.
RememberWhen
Well-Known Member
My grandfather was also a young soldier in WWII. His plane went down in Germany March 9th 1945. He spent the last few months of the war as a POW. Thankfully he made it home safe, married my Grandma, raised 5 kids and lived a long and happy life. He was a scientist and an artist and all those who knew him miss him very much. @Wicked Sisters , thanks for posting that picture and for letting me tack on this bit.
My grandfather is the third from the left in the back row.
My grandfather is the third from the left in the back row.
Attachments
Wicked Sisters
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
You’re very welcome , dad was fighting in Burma so his mum did not celebrate until he came home from there and VJ Day will be special to us as well.
Wicked Sisters
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
His family must be so proud of him. Dad never spoke about his time in the war like many of them and I wish I had asked him more about it now.Woody’s dad lied about his age too!
He was also the recipient of a Purple Heart.
Tiggertoo56
Well-Known Member
My father was too young during the war to serve but one of my uncles was in Burma too and then a POW in Changhi(?] in Singapore. He rarely spoke about his time during the war until he was in his 80s and agreed to be interviewed for a local newspaper. VJ day was celebrated by the family more than VE day.
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
My grandfather served in Europe during WWII. I had to do a report in school and part of it was interviewing veterans so I tried to interview my grandfather. He gave me a copy of his discharge papers, a book that was like a yearbook about his division and the campaigns they were in, and he told me the food was bad, he landed at Normandy a few days after D-Day, and he got shot at the Battle of the Bulge and still had shrapnel in his neck that was close to his vertebrae (had to be monitored for it yearly in case it moved it could paralyze him). My mom said that I was lucky to get that much information out of his and that she had never heard about the shrapnel. I really wish he had shared more about it because the time period of the early 1900's to about 1955 are my favorite to read about, but I can understand not wanting to talk about it too. Oh he also told me that all of his four brothers were in the war and all made it home. Only one of them was in the Pacific theater and he had been captured by the Japanese for a lot of the war.
donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
Both of my grandfathers were too young to serve in WWI, and too old to serve in WWII.
I have cousins who have a grandfather that served in Europe during WWII. He was in a bunker after D-Day and an 88 shell came through the wall. It, oddly enough, didn’t explode, but lodged in his upper leg just above his knee. He got sent home and was disabled for the rest of his life. I remember him talking about it many years ago at my aunt and uncles house.
The first job I had in high school was at a local go-kart track. The man that owned it, with his wife, was a WWII vet. He wasn’t a frontline soldier, but a Seabee with the US Navy. He served on Peleliu, Saipan, etc. He actually made the cover or Stars and Stripes magazine at one point because a holdout Japanese soldier took a pot shot at him while he was driving a Jeep across an airstrip…went through his dress uniform cap, and missed his head by about a half inch. He showed us his copy of that Stars and Stripes issue.
My Pop was in basic training towards the end of the Korean War, and was about two weeks shy of being shipped out when they signed the peace agreement.
He always jokes that the enemy knew he was coming, so they settled it…!!!!!
Just a little levity there, but much thanks to all the others that served.
I have cousins who have a grandfather that served in Europe during WWII. He was in a bunker after D-Day and an 88 shell came through the wall. It, oddly enough, didn’t explode, but lodged in his upper leg just above his knee. He got sent home and was disabled for the rest of his life. I remember him talking about it many years ago at my aunt and uncles house.
The first job I had in high school was at a local go-kart track. The man that owned it, with his wife, was a WWII vet. He wasn’t a frontline soldier, but a Seabee with the US Navy. He served on Peleliu, Saipan, etc. He actually made the cover or Stars and Stripes magazine at one point because a holdout Japanese soldier took a pot shot at him while he was driving a Jeep across an airstrip…went through his dress uniform cap, and missed his head by about a half inch. He showed us his copy of that Stars and Stripes issue.
My Pop was in basic training towards the end of the Korean War, and was about two weeks shy of being shipped out when they signed the peace agreement.
He always jokes that the enemy knew he was coming, so they settled it…!!!!!
Just a little levity there, but much thanks to all the others that served.
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donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
RememberWhen
Well-Known Member
I think that’s correct. It’s a photo of the crew taken stateside during training.Looks like a B-17G with the chin turret…I’m kinda’ a WWII buff...!!!
He was a waist gunner, always a bit disappointed he wasn’t a pilot, in a B-17. They went down in Germany. I know that he and my grandmother made a trip to Germany in the early 90s and he went to see if he could find the site, but he didn’t have any luck. I’m very lucky in that he wrote about his experiences and did a video interview once about his time in the war. He was a great man.
donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
Yea, waist gunners were really seriously exposed to both flak and enemy plane machine gun fire.
He, indeed, sounds like he was a great man.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
I think it's pretty common for them not to want to talk about the war. My mom said my uncle (her brother) also never talked about the war. She was kind of an "oops" and was only 4 years old when her oldest brother was drafted, so he was gone for a lot of her childhood. He was sent to Italy and Germany, according to the notes I have here that she wrote, but she said somewhere in this notebook (I can't find it right now) that he was injured twice and he came home with "shell shock." We found out later he had been involved in the Battle of the Bulge, which was most likely where he was shot, but we don't know for sure because he wouldn't talk about it. My mom used to talk about how her other brother was too young and just couldn't wait for his birthday so he could join up, too, because his mom wouldn't sign for him to enlist underage. She was really relieved when the war ended just before his birthday, so he never fought. But I have some news articles talking about cousins and things who were MIA, but I believe they all came back.
My dad's dad fought in WWI, and his brother fought in WWII, but my dad, also an "oops" was just a child when the war was going on. Dad was in the Korean war, but busted up his knee in basic training and never saw any fighting...he was put on a clerical duty, and was not very happy about it.
But out of all the relatives who served, I never heard any stories directly....most of them had passed before I was born, but even the ones who were still living, none of them ever talked about it. I heard a lot about rationing from my mom, and about her not being allowed to play outside on certain days because there were Japanese POWs who worked in some fields behind their house, and about hiding during air raid drills, but I never heard any stories from those who fought.
Songbird76
Well-Known Member
Found it!
She talks about her brother David being drafted, and then in the 2nd paragraph she said he was wounded twice. I remember her saying he was shot, but I don't know if that was the case both times he was injured, or if he got injured in some other way the other time. And we didn't find out until he died that he had been in the battle of the bulge. I THINK his daughter has his purple heart, but I've never seen it.
She talks about her brother David being drafted, and then in the 2nd paragraph she said he was wounded twice. I remember her saying he was shot, but I don't know if that was the case both times he was injured, or if he got injured in some other way the other time. And we didn't find out until he died that he had been in the battle of the bulge. I THINK his daughter has his purple heart, but I've never seen it.
Wicked Sisters
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone for sharing their relatives war experience's. They were so interesting and especially at this most special time.