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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 3:02 pm 

Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:42 am
Posts: 440
Location: Haslett, Michigan USA
Thanks for recalling Task Force 58 and the Philippine Sea battle. My dad was a radioman/gunner in an SB2C-1 of VB-15 off the USS Essex. In a bookstore recently I discovered that his squadron is the subject of a new book, which makes the third devoted to the Essex aircrews. My dad was never hesitant to talk about his experiences, some of them almost unbelievable, but he never emphasized the heroic record accumulated by this unit.

When my history-oriented friends come to call, they always ask, "Is the clock still running?" On my bookshelf is a wooden case containing the 24-hour clock from a Helldiver. After his first airplane was shot down, my dad vowed to bring a piece back of the next one they lost, and when his dive-bomber was disabled the next time, he unscrewed the clock on the way down, and slipped it into his jacket as they splashed down. His shipmates knew of this plan, and he waved the clock at them as a breeches buoy transferred him from a destroyer to the carrier. (The destroyer crew got a case of ice cream for every aviator returned.)

The series of ". . . in Action" booklets sold in hobby shops devoted to airplanes and ships includes one for the SB2C, and the cover art is painted from a picture of my dad in his bomber. Evidently there was a photographer along on one of their first missions.

In the USS Yorktown on display at Charleston there is a shrine devoted to casualties among US Navy aviators. It includes the names of the men lost from VB-15, most of them in the last days before rotating out of action. Those names were familiar to me from my dad's stories, and contemplating them was a sad and lonely feeling.

Aarne H. Frobom, Jr.


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:03 pm 

Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:19 pm
Posts: 567
Location: Bowie, MD
I had an Uncle who spent the first four months of the war converting a Fisher Body production line in Columbus, Ohio from car parts to torpedo parts in less than 90 days. Said it was the proudest event of his life. Later he served as an Army engineer on Iwo; described P-38's taking off on intercept flights with their tails dragging on the steel runway, making trails of sparks, and shooting at holdout Jap snipers with a BAR. Spent the rest of his life inventing stuff for GM.

Another Uncle was a EOD scuba diver who removed underwater obstacles from Pacific landing beaches before the landings. Later, perhaps because of the stress, drank homemade booze and drove a truck off a cliff, sustaining injuries, both physical and mental that sent him home. I grew up knowing him as your standard "crazy uncle," usually drunk at family parties. Only later in life did I learn the back story. He spent the rest of his life running a used car dealership who later turned the failing dealership into a drive through liquor store that was wildly successful.

Uncles on the other side of the family were backshop welders and boilermakers at PRR's 20th street shops and exempt from the draft.

Bob


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 4:13 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
After I got home from overseas and got a real job, I learned one of the bosses had jumped into Normandy with the 101st Abn on D-Day. He stayed with the 101 and jumped into Holland in Market-Garden. After that he went into Bastogne, Belgium with the 101st.

We had an experimental computer setup and one day the system had indigestion and wouldn't work. I typed "NUTS" in the command field.

My boss saw it and commenced with a Bastogne story and BG Anthony McAuliffe's reply to a German demand he surrender the 101st which was surrounded. McAuliffe's reply was "NUTS"

A WWII Airborne Division was capable of operating without support for several days and the 101st outlasted the Germans with aerial resupply. They were relieved by elements of the 4th Armored Division.

Phil Mulligan


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:26 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
EJ Berry wrote:
A WWII Airborne Division was capable of operating without support for several days and the 101st outlasted the Germans with aerial resupply. They were relieved by elements of the 4th Armored Division.



An interesting line from the movie Band of Brothers, based on the 101st... as they were taking up their positions during the Battle of the Bulge, the soldiers they were relieving were telling them to leave, or they would be surrounded, to which they replied, "We're Airborne. We're supposed to be surrounded."

Years ago I worked with a guy who made the D-Day jump with the 82nd. That statement pretty much summed up his attitude towards life.

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Dennis Storzek


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2020 2:13 pm 

Joined: Thu Feb 27, 2014 10:08 am
Posts: 705
Reading all the media reports of "reopening the economy", how we should expect more deaths from the virus, and how the most vulnerable are the oldest among us that remain from the greatest generation brought this thread to mind.


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2020 3:21 pm 

Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:28 pm
Posts: 545
Location: Northern WV
Lt. Gen. Lewis "Chesty" Puller, is a Marine Corps icon who's known for his quotable quotes nearly as much as his battlefield accomplishments. This is my favorite.

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Roger Cole


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 Post subject: Re: 75 Years Ago Today...
PostPosted: Tue May 05, 2020 5:46 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
More than a few years ago, I learned a colleague, a retired USMC Colonel, had served under Puller in Korea. The 1st Marine Regiment had landed at Inchon, then advanced overland to Seoul. My colleague, then a young Lieutenant, had led his unit at a place called Yeongdeungpo, overlooking the Han River prior to crossing into Seoul and liberating the South Korean Capital.

When I as in Korea a couple of decades later, I learned Yeongdeungpo was the Korean National Railroad's main steam shop which was still overhauling 2-8-2's.

One day, a derelict looking MiKa-5 showed up missing a driving axle, clearly headed for the last roundup. Imagine our surprise when the same engine reappeared a few weeks later with all its wheels and fresh paint, ready for service.

Phil Mulligan


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