Interview with WWII veteran on Iwo Jima

[JAG2955]

Yeah, what those guys did makes me feel (righteously so) insignificant.

Among my late brother's effects was a jar of sand from Iwo Jima. I gave about half of it away to Marines that I knew and were deserving. The rest is a prized possession. Sacred ground, indeed.

[toad]

I had an uncle that was a ball turret gunner on a B-17. I never heard the story directly but my dad told it to me.
A flak round blew the back out of his turret and jammed it in the down position. There wasn't room in the turret for him and a parachute so he was hanging on manually. The got back to the airbase and had to hand pump the gear down. After they landed they had to pry his hands off the grips. He couldn't let go.
I was on the shop floor most of my life and I wonder how many stories were lost from all those vets I worked with. You heard the funny ones sometimes but very, very, seldom the grim ones.

[TheArmsman]

My dad was a Marine from 1948 to 1968. Did several years in both Korea and Vietnam. I can hardly to get him to talk at all about Korea, forbidden subject. Opened up a little more about Vietnam.