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Last of the great ones.

brock ratcliff

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Growing up, I was lucky to know a lot of WWII vets. Two of my mom's older brothers were combat veterans of the south pacific. Many of the men that attended our church were vets, one was 101st airborne and an absolute hard-nosed, take no guff gentle giant until the day he died. There aren't many of those men around these days. I admired those men, and still do. There just aren't many of them left. I can almost hear my two uncles if they were still alive today going on about our current leadership in D.C. What a treat it would be to hear them for real!

There are still a few of the good guys around. One of the landowners I hunt on in FC is one of them. There was an article on him in the WCH paper a month or so ago. I just found it online and thought I'd post it for you all. Think of what these men have done for this country, and look at the shape it's in now!
http://www.recordherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=146736
 

hickslawns

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Excellent story to read Brock. Losing these heroic men is a sad sad thing for our country. It is a real shame but I would rather see them die of old age than in combat I suppose. They have been an inspiration to many.
 

Outdoorsfellar

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This is a good thread.... rightly so of course. These men are what made up " The Greatest Generation ". It just wasn't that long ago when all the old men around were WW1 vets. You'd swear one would have all the time in the world to listen to THEIR stories, & here we are, on the verge of the WWTOOers becoming extinct. Time has a way of getting away from us. These guys certainly coined the phrase... " Being a Man's Man ". You just don't see that much today, or I haven't looked enough. It's hard to keep in mind, that all these vets were just kids, who pretty much were just scared shitless everytime they boarded their bombers. You know they felt like they were sitting ducks. Yet, for those & others that survived, came home & built The United States into a formidable nation is something to be so proud of. Yet, in the zenith of the lives who still remain, it's got to be a kick in the gut to see what this nation has become. Just the same, they can look back & be proud for what they did accomplish.
 

Bigslam51

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Great article! Both my Grandpas are WW2 Vets, only one is still alive. My grandpa Paul died 2 months before I graduated high school back in '02. He was as patriotic as it gets and was laid to rest in his Army dress uniform. My grandpa Ernie was a Navy vet stationed on a ship in the pacific. It's sad that the WW2 vets won't be here much longer, that is why I ask my grandpa all kinds of questions about his service whenever I visit. I should make a video of his story. All I remember asking my Grandpa Paul was if he ever killed any Germans, and when I asked him how many all he said was "enough''. I don't think he wanted to talk about it much.
 

"J"

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Excellent article Brock, thanks for sharing it....

I had a hard time reading it do too some tears in the eyes.... I've had a lot of friends that were WW2 vets and they're all gone now, my Dad enlisted when he was 17 and went too Germany under Patton..... My wife's uncles were 101st Airborne and their stories were phenomenal.... Only a few would go into details of the good times not so much the bad..... My father never mentioned his service until the cancer meds had him hallucinating..... And his story would send chills up and down my spine....

The greatest generation were a bunch of kids who were thrust I to a war that challenged their very way of life..... How do you think we'd handle it now going into a WW3?????
 

hickslawns

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The greatest generation were a bunch of kids who were thrust I to a war that challenged their very way of life..... How do you think we'd handle it now going into a WW3?????

Thank you to your family members who served J. In regards to your last question? I think we need another thread. I wouldn't want to take anything away from the great men discussed in this thread and the great man in this article.
 

Outdoorsfellar

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How do you think we'd handle it now going into a WW3?????

That's easy TOO answer...... the queers ( who haven't done so yet ) will all run out & get married so the government will support their spouses while they're out getting their asses shot off... or plugged, the women will make sure they have all their feminine needs packed away in their packs while they're out in some desert & the other kids will make sure they have extra batteries for all their gadgets to play with while they're in their fox holes....just say'n.
 
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rgecko23

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IMO, We Couldn't. There just isn't the patriotic pull together to better this country, etc. that they had back then. There was a different persona about people. They had a back bone, they worked hard, they were happy with what they had. They would have done whatever they had to do to make it work. I don't see this anymore at all. Too much laziness and pussification. Hell, where was the big parade down mainstreet New York when all our boys and girls came home from this last war?
 

Quantum673

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Great story Brock thanks for sharing.
It is almost a lost generation that does not get nearly enough credit.
There are no words that can cover the gratitude I have for them all.
 

brock ratcliff

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My uncles, Dave and Butch rarely spoke of their experiences as well. Butch was a navy man, aboard a destroyer. He was actually the one wild one out of a family of 11 children. Dave was a more calm man, he cared only about his family, going to church, and riding motorcycles. He held no hard feelings for the japs, drove a toyota and rode Honda Gold Wings even though he was a frontline soldier during the war. He did tell a few stories when I asked. My Grandfather was a WWI vet, and told Dave before he left that he knew what he'd be facing and he and my Grandmother would pray everyday, all day. Dave claimed those prayers are the only thing that kept him alive. There were 12 boys from Chillicothe that entered and served together - 11 were killed in action. Dave carried the leg of his best friend off the field of battle for burial as that's all that remained. After his death we found he had been awarded 5 bronze stars, 2 with arrowhead insignia (first wave). He took part in 7 major invasions including Saipan, Tarawa, Okinawa. The rest I can't recall. He watched helplessly as a kamakaze flew into Butch's destroyer as he was onboard a transport vessel going into an invasion. He stood within feet of McArthur as he gave one of his "You're all gonna die" speeches (Dave never liked him after that). In all of this, over a 36 month period in the heat of the south Pacific, he never received a scratch. And he was certain it was all due to his parents prayers. He was still with us when our troops went after the Taliban in Afghanistan. The news reported they were hunting them down in caves as I sat in Dave's living room visiting. He mentioned they would have to "burn 'em out like we did" and "those boys will never forget the smell". Dave retired from Mead in Chillicothe after 38 years. He was given a plaque when he retired, a little different than most retirees because in those 38 years, he NEVER missed a DAY of work! Fellas, I don't know if the country we live in has many men with the grit to do what the WWII generation did. We certainly don't see it reflected in our elected officials.
 

bowhunter1023

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Thanks for sharing the article and the stories about your uncles. Remarkable stuff and a generation of men like we'll never see again.
 

Boarhead

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Great read Brock.Thanks for sharing.They were the Greatest Generation .Without these brave men we would'nt have the freedom's we have today and i think our younger generation just have no clue at all what these men and women went through during that war to allow us to do the things we do today.I do think we are a Great Country and would like to believe that our younger generation would stand up today if called upon to defend our freedom's.I can still remember after 9-11 how our country came together and all of the patriotism that went on around our great country.Again, Great article.
 

Fullbore

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Great thread, Brock! It is sad that there isn't many of those WWII men left. True Americans and true Heros of this Country we live in. Times sure have changed. Not saying, that there aren't men and women in today's service as good, but the percentages are prolly smaller. Thanks for sharing your post "J" and Brock.
 

brock ratcliff

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Thanks for posting, Ben. That was a great read. Each one of the men involved have similar stories. They all had close calls with death, and left a lot of their friends behind. It blows my mind, really, to think of what these men did for their homeland. To see our current leadership doing their level best to demolish this country is such a huge slap in the face of what these men did. I don't mean just Obama, I mean all of them. Congress cares nothing about the well-being of this nation. If so, there would still be factories in this country, we would be taking care of our own, and we sure as heck wouldn't be putting our nose into the business of every rat hole region of this world.

My Grandmother (Dave and Butch's mother) had newspaper clippings and letters from her boys dating back to the war years. I recall spending the night with her one time and getting into her stash. The letters from Uncle Dave were pretty mundane. They never mentioned any danger, just that he was getting along well, being fed plenty...and keep praying! Grandma told me as I read those letters that he never once mentioned he was in any sort of danger until after he returned, and then he only mentioned that he had hidden under a broken down truck once due to fighting. I asked him about that story as a teenager. Apparently, he drove some kind of vehicle onto a beach during an initial assault. It was hit and immobilized. The shelling and machine gun fire was fierce, so he jumped out and crawled under it trying to hide. His buddy (whose leg he later recovered) drug him out screaming that the vehicle would be next to be hit as they were being targeted. Sure enough, soon after he and his buddy got away, the vehicle exploded. He never did tell Grandma the whole story.

In the newspaper clippings there was an article about three brothers that all joined different branches of the service. The boys were from Chillicothe. There was a bridge named in their honor, though to my shame I don't recall which one it is, or their names. I asked Grandma why the bridge was named after them, and recall the sick feeling I had in my very young stomach when she said, "All of those children died in the war". Think about that. Now I gotta look up that bridge...
 

"J"

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Most of the friends I had that were over there talked of the good times rarely the bad, but you'd get a glimpse every on e in a while but I'd never push.... In hindsight I wish I would of with my Dad too get a feel for what he had gone through and see if that would of explained his demeanor.....
 

twireman

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Great thread. I am fortunate to still have my Papaw Wireman alive. He is 89 and still sharp as a tack. He enlisted at 17 or 18 into the Navy. Spent 4 years floating in the Pacific. I always found it funny after he retired as from Dupont that he never wanted to go on vacation or be away from his house more than a few days. One day I asked him why. He said that he had been around the world and seen all he needed to see!! Always pissed Granny off that he was such a homebody.