My father kept so quiet that I didn't find out anything until he had passed. His military records were a complete surprise. From what others in my generation (first round baby boomers) tell me, their fathers were no different. It must have been Hell.
Ken
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Yes hell, here is documentation to the hell war is. Eugene B. Sledge from his published book, With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. Based upon his diary written on margins of the pages in his bible while fighting during the Pacific Theater:
“In writing I am fulfilling an obligation I have long felt to my comrades in the 1st Marine Division, all of whom suffered so much for our country. None came out unscathed. Many gave their lives, many their health, and some their sanity. All who survived will long remember the horror they would rather forget. But they suffered and they did their duty so a sheltered homeland can enjoy the peace that was purchased at such a high cost. We owe those Marines a profound debt of gratitude.” – E B Sledge
‘We owe the same gratitude to the late E. B. Sledge. He reminds us in “sheltered homeland” that America is never immune from the “insanity” of war. So he brings alive again the names, faces, and thoughts of those who left us at Okinawa and Peleliu, but who passed-on what we must bequeath to others to follow.’ – Victor Davis Hanson
For America’s sake, those were only two fronts of sacrifice paid by good young men for you and I. D-Day was as bad or worse. In the 30 years involving WW I and WW II, 38 million lives were lost, mostly civilians. Let us never forget.
To me it is a matter of Posterity, John Gluth