[Retain Mike]

This essay is my way to remember annually the extraordinary men who surrounded me growing up; men who seemed to consider their WW II service as a common rite of passage. My contact with these men started about age ten when my dad began taking me out golfing on the weekends. There was a man who used the first golf cart I ever saw, because as a brigade commander of the 41th infantry in New Guinea he was debilitated by sickness. I remember one fairly good golfer who had a weird back swing. I found out he was crippled while serving with the Big Red One in Sicily. My Economics professor in college served with one of the first UDT teams to clear barricades and mines in the surf zone before Pacific landings. I often ended up as a dishwasher at the country club and noticed the chef always limped as he moved around the kitchen. He saw my puzzled look, and said he got the limp from a wound received when he was with the Rangers at Pointe De Hoc. Those are just a few of the stories I remember among so many others I could tell or have forgotten.

Men like these, who at the same time are both extraordinary and ordinary, should never be forgotten. The reference and links contain much more information.

[Hugin]

Duplicate posts are bad enough, but duplicate vanities?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3556198/posts

[x1stcav]

My mother’s brother went in with the 4th Infantry at Utah as a grunt in the 8th Infantry. Made it through the initial landing but was killed ten days or so later in the hedgerows.

Flash ahead 25 years and my first assignment in the Nam was as a rifle platoon leader with the 4th Div in 3/8 Infantry.

My mother was not pleased, but it worked out OK.

[wastoute]

Think about it. Almost 10% of WWII casualties occurred in the Hurtgen Forest. 11 x 5 miles.

[Vendome]

Just watched “Band of Brothers” all day...