Posted on 05/29/2017 8:46:16 AM PDT by Retain Mike
I appreciate your comments and as I said, I thought Daddy was being a jerk.
It was apparently more than just a single soldier's prejudice tho. The enmity between the combat engineers and airborne may has been what led to the football game between them. It was held at the Berlin Polo Grounds. Both Eisenhower and Zhukov attended. The Engineers won.
My dad was on the 511th PIR boxing team. They defeated the
Combat Engineers in a match. Television writer/producer and
Twilight Zone creator Rod Sirling was in the 511th. His
biographer claimed he was on the boxing team. Pop did not
remember Sirling and neither did the boxing coach, Foster
Arnett.
Some units suffered 500% casualties.
Thank you so much! I am visiting Mrs. Derflinger now but will gather what else I can find and talk with her on Saturday. I saw that James’ brother has done some research and may contact him, too. There were so many lost. He was listed as a medic at one site. Reading the back of the pics she has he would write the names of those in the pics (some nicknames only) and for himself he wrote, “nothing.” He was honored with a bronze star.
As parents WWII and Korean war vets didn’t take any s*** from their kids.
As the War demonstrated, life and time were too precious for mischief and goofing off.
ok, I’m going to add a little psych to the discussion. The harder it is to earn ANYTHING the more it is respected by the individual. If it’s easy, we can understand the saying, “That was easy.” However, like Marine boot camp, which is pretty stinking tough, I bet those who parachute face great fears and train harder. Doesn’t mean that others aren’t as good or couldn’t do it, it’s just that those who do it, learn more about what they CAN DO and it changes your self image.
Which is exactly why the communist democrats are lowering the standards for our military. It mushes the heart of the military and makes them weaker by not doing what they actually could achieve.
I think one can get some idea of the attitude of the airborne when Patton’s Army rescued them at Bastogne. They told the ones who rescued them that they did not need rescuing although they flat out did need to be.
I can imagine how that went over with the guys who had fought their way to save them.
Wow. I can’t believe I don’t have that book. Definitely going to read it, before I post this essay again. I have several of his other books.
My Dad was 69yj Infantry. We have a picture of him standing at a sign that says Elbe River.
He was so young, he looked like a 14 year old boy, yet they were all so brave.
Ed
69th Infantry...
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