Memorial Day Remembrance: The Magnificent Infantry of WW II

self | May 30, 2022 | Self

[Retain Mike]

This essay is my way to remember annually on Memorial Day and Veterans Day the extraordinary men I met growing up; men who at the same time seemed so ordinary. My contact with these men of the Greatest Generation started about age twelve when my dad began taking me out golfing on the weekends and allowed me to join his foursome. Therefore, I probably had a lot more contact with these men than most of my peers. From the way these men talked of WW II service, I gained the impression that the military should be considered a common rite of passage into adulthood. When the Vietnam War came it was simply my turn and I volunteered for the Navy officer program. I remember being puzzled because no one else seemed to express any interest in or feel an obligation to serve. I could never really identify with my Baby Boomer generation.

I knew so many veterans. There was a man who used the first golf cart I ever saw, because as a brigade commander of the 41st infantry in New Guinea he was permanently debilitated by sickness in 1942. 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. Here was one of the men portrayed in the movie the Longest Day. One day Don had his brother Ken with him at the golf course. That seemed no big thing until someone mentioned he was an ace with the Flying Tigers. Here in real life was the character I saw John Wayne play in the movie about his squadron. I found out a friend of many years served with the 10th Mountain Infantry which landed in Italy in January 1945. He received two silver stars and was the only one of eight officers in his company to soldier through the102 days until the Germans surrendered in May.

Those are just a few of the stories I remember among so many others I could tell or have forgotten. I have the privilege today of attending a memorial service at a veteran cemetery, and I can still wear the Navy service dress blue uniform I bought at OCS in 1969.

[laplata]

Thanks for posting this.

[MarvinStinson]

American troops of the 1st Infantry Division leaving the port of Weymouth, England
en route to Omaha Beach in Normandy in June 1944

.
June 6th, 1944- Into the Jaws of Death

; Tom Jensen, sergeant with the 626th Engineer Light Equipment Company, told the Chicago Tribune that many of the men he served with had no idea where they were going on that day:

They didn't tell us anything we didn't need to know. Heck, some of the guys on our ship thought we were headed to Japan, not Normandy. Just months earlier, we were either in high school or working odd jobs.

.

[Philo1962]

I met a few bomber pilots at family reunions. Seems like an easy job, but it wasn't. You had to fly what was, in effect, a flying Molotov cocktail. Slow, level and straight. A perfect target. Against some of the finest, most experienced fighter pilots in the world, flying some of the finest aircraft in the world. Engineering marvels, including the world's first operational fighter jets. And you couldn't even shoot back. You had to rely on the other guys in your crew to shoot back.

Just keep a steady hand on the controls, and try to stay frosty.

[MarvinStinson]

[MarvinStinson]

[AppyPappy]

I’m reading about the 10th Division now. I just got to the part where Bob Dole gets wounded. Italy was a senseless killing field

[MarvinStinson]

GEORGE S. PATTON

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.

Rather we should thank God such men lived."

[MarvinStinson]

We don't know them all,

but we owe them all.

[MarvinStinson]

Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it.

It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.

[Leaning Right]

Back when I was in my 20s I worked security for a major university. One of the campus cops - I’ll call him Bill - was fat and slow. He didn’t look anything like those slick cops you see on TV. Some of the younger campus cops made fun of him. Bill never argued back. He just took it.

Well, one day Bill brought a briefcase to roll call. He didn’t say a word, he just opened it up in front of us. In that briefcase were citations and rows of medals. Bill was an Army Ranger who landed on D-Day.

Nobody made fun of Bill after that.

[princeofdarkness]

Yes. Plus it didn’t help that General Mark Clark committed stupid strategic decisions that prolonged the Italian campaign.

[Nifster]

Thank you the post and the reminder

[real saxophonist]

My dad was not Infantry, he was a Naval Officer. His LCT had an Army engineer company with bulldozers ant TNT on Utah Beach.

Hell, I wasn't Infantry. I was a headquarters POG.

[real saxophonist]

ant=and, obviously...

[AppyPappy]

Churchill wanted Vienna but he lacked a viable strategy for getting there. Getting tied down in the mountains instead of breaching Rimini and heading for Bologna cost too many lives. The Germans would have to abandon their positions or get cut off.

[Big Red Badger]

All gave Some,
Some Gave All !
.
Thank You for Your Service.

[LS]

A couple of good movies this Memorial Day:
“Memorial Day” with James Cromwell about a grandfather explaining items in his WW II footlocker to his grandson-—who goes on to be a soldier in Iraq.

“Operation Mincemeat,” the Brits launch a long-shot counterintelligence plan to convince Hitler the Sicily invasion is really coming in Greece. With Colin Firth.

[Big Red Badger]

Only got,
‘Saving Private Ryan’
.
It will have to do.

[LS]

That’s a goodie. Still very hard to watch.