A Sad Point in History

[Dan McEntee]

   For you guys that are my age or older, and grew up in a time when it was second nature and common place to talk to and about WW-2 veterans and wonder what things must have been like for them. I saw a headline today that the last survivor of the USS. Arizona crew that was on board the morning of December 7th, 1941 has passed away. They are all gone now. Did you ever conceive the idea in your mind that this day would come? I just wish the younger generations had some kind of idea of what this means to this country.
  God Bless 'Em All,
  Dan McEntee

[wwwarbird]

 I saw that today too, never forget.

[Ken Culbertson]

Unfortunately, the younger generations are growing up in a different world than we did.  They react and cope with their world much differently than we did to ours just as we reacted and coped with a world that was much different than the world our parents grew up in.  My father was buried in a military cemetery as I will be someday.  His ceremony was provided by the local VFW.  The master of ceremonies, for want of a better word, was one of the original Flying Tigers.  He is gone now as well. It just struck me that the kids today have no larger than life hero's to inspire them.

Ken

[fred cesquim]

Unfortunately, the younger generations are growing up in a different world than we did.  They react and cope with their world much differently than we did to ours just as we reacted and coped with a world that was much different than the world our parents grew up in.  My father was buried in a military cemetery as I will be someday.  His ceremony was provided by the local VFW.  The master of ceremonies, for want of a better word, was one of the original Flying Tigers.  He is gone now as well. It just struck me that the kids today have no larger than life hero's to inspire them.

Ken

as alarming as should be living in a world that young people have low interest in history they still have "larger than life hero's to inspire them" but they are of different areas such as doctors and scientists that found cure for fatal diseases, people who fight against poverty or ultra conservative regimes and so on. history changes and people change along. no excuse for them not to learn about history anyway.

[Ty Marcucci]

I see on You Tube where a young man goes to big name colleges and asks basic questions and these alleged students can not tell you when the war of 1812 was nor who was involved in WW2.. Sad really.  3 cubed baffles them.

[Arlan McKee]

I see on You Tube where a young man goes to big name colleges and asks basic questions and these alleged students can not tell you when the war of 1812 was nor who was involved in WW2.. Sad really.  3 cubed baffles them.

It's worse than you imagine. College and University "professors"  are teaching kids to hate our country. I can't stand the thought of what kind of country this will be for my grandkids to live in after the Silent generation, the Baby Boomers, and Gen X are gone or too old to work.
Just listen to what this North Korean girl says about her college experience.

.https://youtube.com/shorts/EH8LePfVW6E?si=RE-WNYW9gtH_NErm

[Steve Dwyer]

Dan,

I think the younger generation will grow into wonderment as we did later in life to learn to appreciate what our elders did to contribute to making this world a better place. I still today wonder why I never took a stronger tact with my father and said, dad, I want to know more about your experiences in WW2. He'd never talked about his time there and I was too busy with playing baseball, chasing girls and Fox 35s.

It's interesting to think about my father born in 1915 when as a teenager had the opportunity to talk to some of the last Civil War vets at that time. Did he make an effort or was he too busy being a teenager? This would have been another question I wished I had confronted him with. Anyway 5 years ago I was asked to speak at the service of my mentor who built model planes down the street. He died at 95 and had stormed the beaches in Normandy. We never once talked about his experiences in France, of course I was the "younger generation" at the time. For all I know he probably thought I wasn't interested and of course I wasn't.

Steve

[Gordon Tarbell]

I too was saddened by the news of the last "Arizona crewman " passing into history. I am 68 now , I grew up in my early years on and around USAF bases. I did talk to many WWII vets, Korean war vets, and of course Viet Nam vets. Dad held back a lot in our conversations but did divulge a fair amount about his experience from WWII and Korea, he was very proud of his time working the Berlin airlift. Across the street was B-17 crewman/ex POW . Kind of Ironic that his son was one of the first Thud pilots to get shot down and spend years at the Hanoi Hilton. I worked for a Marine that signed up the following morning of Peal Harbor. Survived three bloody beech landings in the Pacific. I guess I was lucky to have had those conversations. Learned a lot. I will miss them all.

[Ken Culbertson]

My father and his two brothers and my eventual step father were all front line in WWII.  Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, the bombing of the Romanian oilfields, the air war in the south Pacific.  All came home unharmed physically.  They never talked about it, even when we would ask.  When we would watch a war movie and would ask if it really was like that all they ever said was something like, No, it was far worse.  I think I understand.

When my father passed away we were going through his effects and found the battle record of his ship.  I knew about it from the only time he ever talked about the war to me.   My little brother, a retired Navy fighter pilot, had no idea that he was ever on a ship none the less a decorated minesweeper at Normand.

Another younger brother and I were both in VietNam and we don't talk about it much either except with other vets.  It is too bad that we don't pass on the horrors of war to the next generation.  I think that they would be less likely to engage in it. 

Ken

[Ted Fancher]

God bless America: Amen!

[Paul Smith]

I was born in July of 1946, thereby becoming a genuine original Baby Boomer.
My father was a major in The Army Air Corps in the South Pacific.
Of the sixteen million WWII veterans I never saw any of them wearing veteran paraphernalia after the war, and certainly not 50 years later.

His best souvenirs are his photos of the Japanese surrender delegation going around to the islands to convince their men that the war was over.  This was the only war that ended with the enemy government formally surrendering The USA.

[Donald R Olson]

It’s sad to hear the last of the Arizona survivors has passed. And this thread is great to read and gives me a chance to express my thoughts about my dad. When I hear people calling actors or sports figures heroes I shake my head. My hero is my father who passed away a few years ago. He was a combat engineer during WWII. He fought in the Africa Corp against Rommel. He went in on D Day, on Omaha Beach, at H Hour. He was charged with clearing the mines and barbed wire so the first wave could get onto and off the beach while under intense German fire. He fought in the battle of the bulge. He was among the first Americans to liberate German concentration camps. He rarely talked about it, but there were a few times when he did tell me and by brothers some of the things that he went through. Once we had a family member who boldly stated the holocaust never happened. My dad set him straight with some horrific descriptions of what the surviving people looked like and the mass graves and dead bodies he saw with his own eyes. With all he had endured he was the gentlest, most caring, and generous man I ever knew. I honestly never heard him gossip or talk down of anyone. I could write on and on, forgive me for writing so much. This was truly the greatest generation and I miss him and all those who really saved our world. God rest their soles.

[wwwarbird]

...no excuse for them not to learn about history anyway.

 Other than that "schools" don't teach actual history anymore, it's too "offensive". I've been saying that schools have been gone for many years now, our country has turned them into nothing more than Liberal Programming Centers. It's an incredibly sad reality. Don't get me going...

[Dave_Trible]

I try not to go 'off topic' on the stunt forum but add my bit.  Everything fades into time and history.  After a couple generations memories disappear intentionally or otherwise.   Someone wrote a book about my family twenty five or thirty years ago.  In there I find my grandfather's grandfather was in the civil war...most of the history was garnered from a couple ladies in to family who wrote quite a few letters which are just about like history books.  I could not tell which SIDE he was on...Since my family ancestors first arrived in 1638 I'd have to guess some must have been in the Revolutionary war but that isn't told anywhere.  MY grandfather was a medic in the trenches of WWI.  He was gassed and suffered somewhat his whole life thereafter.  Then a generation later he saw four of his sons go off to another war.  Since he had been there and understood what it was it was said that was very hard for him.  I actually have his original boarding pass for the Leviathan that he traveled over on.  Of the four sons all EVENTUALLY came home.  My dad was in the 106th infantry division at the Battle of the Bulge and was captured by the Nazi.  He spent the next five months in Bad Orb Stalag IXB.  There is very little he would ever say about that experience.  He went to war at 19 with black hair.  He came home at 19 with snow white hair which he had the rest of his life.  For years if there was a noise at night he would instinctively dive under the bed.  The Russians overran Stalag IXB and he was liberated just as the guards had lined all the prisoners up in front of a big ditch and began shooting them one by one. 
When I was about to graduate high school I made the mistake of going to tell my dad I wanted to join the military so that I could go to college.  The previous week his boss's son had the back of his head blown off in Vietnam.   I cannot explain how mad he became.  He said no and if I got drafted he would take me to Canada or kill me himself.  He and the family had done enough.  I respected his wishes and barely missed being drafted.  It's not hard to see how the real combat vets aren't too interested in telling their stories or proclaiming themselves as heroes-none of them felt that way.  They had little choice but to do what they did.  In the same way most want to forget their war experience,  not dwell in it.  That is how memories fade into the past.   Many times the history makers would rather forget about it and get on with the rest of their lives.

Dave