World War II Memorial, Washington, DC
Posted on 05/07/2019 1:03:36 PM PDT by srmanuel
I've always been a WW II amateur historian, totally into WW II history, last year on this very day I was with a Stephen Ambrose Historical Tour on Omaha Beach on at the beginning of the Band of Brothers Tour... I will always honor a WW II from the Greatest Generation who passes away... But it hits home after this veteran passes away on the flight home at age 95 after going to the WW II Memorial in Washington It was like he willed himself to live long enough to visit the Memorial then died.... God Bless Him and all those who served...
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
What a life, and what a way to leave it.
RIP Frank . . .
RIP and thank you, Sir.
Rest easy Brother in paradise, we have the watch now!
And some of today’s kids consider themselves to be the greatest generation. That’s like Barack Obama considering himself to be the greatest president...laughable.
“Rest easy Brother in paradise, we have the watch now!”
Even youngest D Day vets are now in early 90’s. Won’t be long till they all will be gone. Reverence and Respect are the words deserved....
With all due respect, who is to say which generations is the greatest? Were the WWI patriots who stormed the trenches and got mowed down like grass any less ‘great’??? What about the boys in far flung outposts like Restrepo in Afghanistan ??? Were the kids who stormed Normandy any more brave than those boys who died in that hell? Flame away...
“Flame away...”
Yeh, at those who have had no family where SOMEONE served and ‘paid the price’so others could live on.
Too damn many of them, and appreciation is something they just dO NOT KNOW !!
RIP, Sir.
My father lied about his age in order to enlist. He was 17 at the time. He returned home after his stint with the USMC in the Pacific and never left the surrounding area of his home ever again for any reason. When asked why, he always said; “I’ve seen enough to last me a lifetime.” My youngest sister finally talked him in to going to dedication of the WWII Memorial back in 2004, I think. They went and came back. He told her once they got back; “I’m ready to go now”. He lived a few more quiet years at his place on a lake in eastern Maine. Then, he just finally passed away in his sleep early one morning.
Yeah, they are the “greatest generation”. They were something else.
I can think of some boys who spent a night in Mogodisu and a few more in Bengazi who are owed much more than they ever got!
Agree. Instead of placing arbitrary definitions on this generation or that, I would prefer to say this: America. We. Breed. Lions.
I thought the one that died on Omaha beach when he went there to honor his bud’s that died there.
America. We have greatness in every generation.
Thank you, Frank.
Lord, please receive the soul of Frank Manchel, and comfort his family and friends. Amen.
When I was growing up, my grandfather would always point out three old men in his little farm town who had fought in World War 1 and then again in World War 2.
I have always thought that the men who fought in both of those wars with the great depression in between were the greatest generation.
RIP. He left under the best of circumstances, bless his heart.
One can always find exceptions. I worked with an older fellow for years before one of his friends told me about how he refused to serve in WWII. He claimed to be a conscientious objector but the Draft Board didn't buy that as he was a Presbyterian. He refused to serve as a medic. They sent him to prison. Eventually, I think he was ashamed of what he had done but never told any of his colleagues. Evidently, they tested new drugs on such prisoners and he would occasionally refer to testing drugs as "his contribution to the war effort", but he never admitted his prison term.
On the positive side I've known other WWII veterans who served with honor. That helps to overshadow some of the stains.
World War II Memorial, Washington, DC
The term was coined some years ago to refer to a generation that endured a Great Depression and from that, was hurled into a two front world war and who, after finally defeating the Japanese Empire's fanatical war machine AND the NAZI juggernaut.....only to come face to face with a surging Godless Communist nuclear annihilation threat.
No one takes a single thing away from the history of American warriors doing battle to keep freedom alive. From Valley Forge to the Civil War to the Plains Wars to the trenches of France and Belgium to Korea, VietNam, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, Somalia and more.
I took the B of B tour in 2010. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. It whetted my appetite, and I’ve been back (Normandy, Bastogne/Holland) three times by myself.
On our tour, we were joined by Ed Mauser, a private in the 2nd Platoon, Easy Company, 506th P.I.R., 101st Airborne.
Ed accompanied us all the way to the Bois Jacque. He was wounded there, and his war ended. I have a picture of Ed standing in one of the remaining foxholes in the Ardennes.
Ed passed away about three months after we came home.
God Bless the Charter Members of the Greatest Generation.
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