Military History

#631
#631
GroverCleveland said:
I will have to keep up on ESPN Gamecast. YouTubeTV does not work here. But will probably be asleep. Fly back home tomorrow.
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Thanks so much for sharing all this with us. I will share it with my kids. My Pappaw was born in 32 so his childhood was the aftermath of WW1 and the Depression, but he was too young to serve in WW2. He joined USAF in 1950 when he graduated HS and served through Korea and Viet Nam retiring a Master Sergeant 26 years later. He was stationed in the Phillipines during wartime and loaded bombs on planes constantly to be dropped on the enemy. He had endless stories and I always hung on every word. He is my hero still, though no longer among us today. He used to tear up talking about the medical planes coming in full of dying "boys" as he called them (being a Sergeant and nearly twice their age at that point) He said everyone helped to unload those stretchers when the planes came in...when the hospital got full they laid them out in a row on the sidewalk for triage....so the doctors could walk down the line and mark the priorities to save or take a limb...versus those who were too far gone to treat urgently. He said these boys blood ran down the street because there were so many...and the sounds of their anguish really hurt him. It was the only stories where he ever cried. Saying "they were just boys, like the ones who served under him". He felt responsible for those 18yo airmen who worked their butts off with him every day turning those bombers around much faster than the standard they were held to. He was like an uncle or father figure to those boys so far away from home. To see all those boys the same age coming in blown to pieces and dyiing on the sidewalk awaiting surgery really hurt him. We lost far too many men and boys in those 2 wars. Just like all the wars before them. Thank you for sharing these pictures and info so that I can share it with my kids. Hopefully we can go someday as well
 
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#633
#633
GroverCleveland said:
Spent yesterday afternoon in the Verdun Memorial and Museum.

I hired a guide for today to cover the battlefield. We will start at Lt. Col. Driant's Monument and bump a bit further north where German and French trenches faced one another before the battle. Then we will tour Ft. Douaumont, the Ossuary, Fleury, Trench of the Bayonets, and Ft. Souville. Ft. Vaux is closed. The are some other forts one can visit in the area, but one enters at one's own risk.
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An excellent English-language account of the battle is The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Alistaire Horne.
 
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