Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

THE PASSING OF THE WWII GENERATION
The National WW2 Museum ^ | Unknown | The National WW2 Museum Staff

Posted on 06/06/2023 12:37:52 PM PDT by buckalfa

Every day, memories of World War II—its sights and sounds, its terrors and triumphs—disappear. Yielding to the inalterable process of aging, the men and women who fought and won the great conflict are now in their 90s or older. They are dying quickly—according to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 167,284 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2022.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalww2museum.org ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: 19440606; dday; greatestgeneration; passing; worldwareleven; ww2; wwii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last
As the 79th anniversary of D Day is at hand, the realization sets in that America's greatest generation is vanishing before our eyes.

While the article is a sales pitch for donations, it does contain some stark statistics.

For those who still can, I urge you to reach out to anyone of that generation who contributed to the cause. Make record of what you learn so that generation's collective wisdom is not lost to the future.

1 posted on 06/06/2023 12:37:52 PM PDT by buckalfa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

Yes,they’re just about gone.


2 posted on 06/06/2023 12:42:46 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

Both of grandfathers were WW2 combat vets. The last one passed in ‘18 at 97 yes old. I’m glad they’re not here to see our total descent into faggotry and Marxism.


3 posted on 06/06/2023 12:44:29 PM PDT by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

When I was a kid (mid-1960s) I went to see a doctor. I always was the talkative type, so I asked him where he went to college.

Doctor: I went to the University of Pittsburgh. That was after my time in the army.
Me: My father was also in WW II.
Doctor: I was in WW I.


4 posted on 06/06/2023 12:45:54 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

A mere 80 years ago. Some folks have ZERO friggin’ clue about how blessed we are because of the sacrifice made by so many. 😳🙏


5 posted on 06/06/2023 12:50:07 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative

Next on the list are the baby boomers. We are next. Once we’re all gone America will cease to exist. God still has a small remnant in America…those that earnestly believe God protected this nation because HE was the center of America’s beating heart. We are the ones that are holding back demonic powers that our land has never ever seen before…but once we’re gone that wall of protection disintegrates. ….it’s coming. Pray 🙏🏻for your children and grandchildren 😢


6 posted on 06/06/2023 12:56:03 PM PDT by RoseofTexas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

When I was a kid, maybe 12, I came to know an old man across the street named John. He was a scary looking guy who was actually quite kind. He fought in WWI. Taught me about the 40 and 8 train cars. 40 men or 8 horses.

I don’t remember much of our conversations except that they were interesting.

I’ve had the honor of knowing some WWII vets who had very interesting experiences. One was UDT who swam into Normandy the night before the attack to plant munitions to clear the beaches, then swam back to the ship.

Another was a B-24 pilot.

I had a great uncle who earned the Silver Star. I don’t know what for. He was an officer on a bomber buried somewhere in France.

Another Great uncle was a member of a destroyer crew. He’s still alive. I think he was at the tail end of the war and didn’t see much if any action.

I had a friend who wanted to go but as a skilled machinist, he was required to remain stateside to build the mighty war machine.

I very briefly met a man who was in the OSS.

Ever one who participated was a hero.


7 posted on 06/06/2023 1:02:07 PM PDT by cyclotic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

All three of my uncles served in WWII. All have since passed away. My dad wanted to serve, but kept flunking the physical due to a duodinal ulcer. He was a scoutmaster, and he set the scouts to work selling $70,000 in war bonds, planting victory gardens, and collecting materials needed in the war effort, such as scrap metals, etc.

He passed away in 1995.


8 posted on 06/06/2023 1:03:36 PM PDT by Daveinyork
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Levy78

“..I’m glad they’re not here to see our total descent into faggotry and Marxism....”

Yep. My wife and I were just talking about that very thing earlier this morning.
My dad was a USMC BAR rifleman that was in the first wave to hit the beach of Okinawa. He passed a few years back at 89 years old.
He’d have an outright fit over what’s happening in our country right now.


9 posted on 06/06/2023 1:04:17 PM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RoseofTexas

> Next on the list are the baby boomers. We are next. Once we’re all gone America will cease to exist. <

You are not exaggerating there. We are the last generation to understand what free speech is all about. We are also the last generation able to resist relentless media and government propaganda.

Sure, there will be rebels in the years ahead. But by and large, most young folks will go along to get along. Any questioning of the PC culture will brand you as a bigot and a hater. You might even get cancelled. Nobody wants that. Better to keep quiet.


10 posted on 06/06/2023 1:06:53 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

My dad was in a Jap concentration camp with my grandmother, grandfather and uncle in the interior of China because they were Belgian living in China when the Japanese invaded. He was there three years. Starving. Saw people beaten to death as a ten year old kid.


11 posted on 06/06/2023 1:14:51 PM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lgjhn23

My Dad was in the Philippines. He was awarded a bronze star for going behind enemy lines with another soldier and retrieving a downed piper cub.

One uncle was on Iwo Jima.

Another uncle was wounded at Guadalcanal. Both came home intact.
RIP DAD, Uncle Dino, and Uncle Mike.


12 posted on 06/06/2023 1:16:37 PM PDT by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: cyclotic

A long, long time ago I worked security for a major university. An old Italian janitor worked in one of the buildings I patrolled.

He was a little old guy, and he spoke broken English. No one paid much attention to him. After all, fancy university professors didn’t have the time to talk to lowly janitors!

Well, I made time to talk to him. Eventually he opened up to me. Turns out that he was a WW II vet. But not on our side. He was a member of a Waffen SS unit that was raised in Italy. He did not surrender when Italy surrendered. He stuck with the Germans, and fought in the Battle of Berlin.

I don’t think I would have wanted to meet him when he was a young man.


13 posted on 06/06/2023 1:18:35 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa
My dad (WW2 South Pacific US Marine Seabee) passed in 2015 at age 89.

My mom passed 13 months later in 2016 at age 82.

My uncle (WW2 US Army, survived the Bataan death march, Philippines) passed at age 92.

14 posted on 06/06/2023 1:21:20 PM PDT by GaltAdonis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RoseofTexas

The Baby boomers are NOT next……no way .

……


15 posted on 06/06/2023 1:25:12 PM PDT by Mears (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: yldstrk

A friend of my parents was in the marines. He was part of the marine detail at the US embassy in Hong Kong. He should have had diplomatic immunity but signatures were lacking on documents necessary to prove it. He was in various Japanese POW camps from December 8, 1941 to the end of the war.

I am sure his stories and your dad’s are quite similar.


16 posted on 06/06/2023 1:26:27 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Daveinyork
"he set the scouts to work selling $70,000 in war bonds, planting victory gardens, and collecting materials needed in the war effort, such as scrap metals, etc.

The war effort could not have succeeded without service on the home front. Your father's efforts should be commended and remembered.

17 posted on 06/06/2023 1:28:22 PM PDT by buckalfa (Gut feelings are your guardian angels)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Leaning Right

It was the loss of those professors. He could have been an important source for a book or scholary paper. Some assistant professor who befriended could have been famous or at least received tenure!


18 posted on 06/06/2023 1:28:58 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa
look at 911....how devastating that was and there are younger people around that do not remember it at all...

not to mention Pearl Harbor, the TET offensive, the assassination of JFK and RFK.....

and, they are not teaching any of that in the schools....

19 posted on 06/06/2023 1:30:28 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

But they will still be on the voting rolls


20 posted on 06/06/2023 1:34:10 PM PDT by 5inch38gunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson