~Tribute to M1911A1's Father-WWII Veteran~

Freeper M1911A1 | October 24, 2004 | M0sby

[M0sby]

Please see below:
Thiswas writen by my husband, FReeper M1911A1, about his father Jack, who passed away this morning.

He was 84 years old.
 

---

We have come to refer to the survivors of the Great Depression and WWII as “the Greatest Generation”. This phrase honors those, who like my father, were participants in some of the most difficult and pivotal moments in American history.  Yet, as all labels do, it masks extraordinary individual stories in a generalization.

 

My dad’s story is the sort that captures a boy’s imagination.  As a young boy himself, he confessed to mischief that I could never hope to match, including filling a mean old neighbor’s basement with water via a garden hose inserted secretly through a window, and launching ball bearings with a giant slingshot through the walls of his house.  As a young man, he went to Alaska, the last frontier, and explored wild lands.  He told me of hunting big game with Sam the Indian guide and a Winchester ‘94 while he scouted and surveyed for the Army constructing the AlCan highway.  I remember a picture he kept in his closet, not on display, of a rough young man wearing a cowboy hat, buckskins and brandishing six-guns.  There is a self conscience but proud look on that bearded face, as he lived the life of the frontier legends of his own youth, Tom Mix in the flesh.

 

And then came the Last Good War, and even though he was deferred due to his Alaska job and deterred by his mother’s concern over the awful casualty lists, he volunteered to be drafted, so he could justly say to his mother that he hadn’t enlisted. 

 

He fought with the 28th Division as an infantryman, and only another infantryman can understand the grim realities of that humble position in a World War.  As a child, this idea of my father as warrior held high romance, and only later did I begin to realize the enormous suffering and perseverance that this entailed.  He became a survivor of some of the most merciless bloodlettings since the Civil War. Names like the Hurtgen Forest and the Bulge, soon to become the sole possession of historians as time swallows living memory, were reality for my father.  It is true that he was part of the great Crusade in Europe, where brave men with rifles smashed the evil of Nazi terror, yet it is equally true that he was a small, shivering, filthy refugee from war’s terrible law of averages. The constant misery and horror of death avoided and dealt temporarily took his reason from him after the slaughter of the Hurtgenwald, but he soldiered on and helped save Bastogne.    He was a Prisoner of War, and the events that people my age viewed through the comic prism of “Hogan’s Heroes” he knew as harsh times of hunger, anguish, despair and determination to live.  

 

He then came home, put the war away, got a career, got married and had six boys.  This, as they say, is where I come in.  My father was, to me, first and foremost my father, not the boy, adventurer, soldier, husband and businessman that others knew him as.  I remember a man who taught me how to conk a trout on the head with a jackknife and to  love reading, who whistled the same tune over and over, harassed my mother over the relative weight of the flatware, danced with her when we kids dug out those quaint old 78’s, shoved all those sons in a Galaxy 500 and drove what seemed like forever to go see my cousins, showed me the right way to play poker, went to see me play football, corrected me, reluctantly tolerated my errors, and always forgave them.  I was very conscience of his faults, sometime without thought for the furnace that forged them, especially as my own manhood approached. I often masked my affection for him, as men do, with sarcasm and humor.  My own son knows him as “Grumpy Grandpa”, and we boys were quick to joke about the irascible old man and some of his politically incorrect ways. Yet, for us and for his times, he and his kind were truly indispensable.

 

At a life’s end, our humanity demands that we who remain try to measure it and the yardstick we must use is our own experience.  My father helped explore the last American frontier; I explored the woods next to our house.  My father saw more of real soldiering in less than two years than I have seen in more than two decades.  He raised five boys; I struggle mightily with just two.  He did this not as a part of some fable from a “Greatest Generation”, but as an individual man, with all the shortcomings and virtues therein, and that is what made him remarkable in my eyes. 

 

My father’s story is the sort that captures a boy’s imagination, and as a time has brought me experience, if not wisdom, it has captured my respect and admiration. If my own sons can know a little of him through me, I will be glad for it, and I truly believe that they will be better for it.  I cannot offer him more heartfelt praise than that.

 

Thanks dad

---

[M0sby]

Thank you for reading about my Father - In - Law. He was a great man. I will miss him.

[M0sby]

Please see this post about my Father -In - Law, Jack, who passed away this morning.

[Two Dawgs]

This has brought tears to my eyes...God rest his soul and thank you for honoring him.

[OldFriend]

A story about honor and integrity. Love of one's country and love of one's family.

Nothing could be more deserving of our respect. Thank you for posting this heartwarming tribute.

[Freesofar]

Through tears may I say that your father was a great man, the type of bravery that holds the fabric of America together.

Our present generation,in a larger sense, may never know the truth about the past. WWll was an important lesson to learn. Yet it seems to have been washed out by the schools and the media, in much the same way, 9-11 was.

I too lost my father this year, a WWll vet who survived Okinawa,the last battle of WWll. I too wrote his amazing story here (and surprisingly only got three responses).

May your father rest in peace and may WWll not be forgotten.

Thank You for sharing this and allowing me the priveledge to greive alongside you.

[M0sby]

[trussell]

Prayer ping.

Please post your replies to M0sby; M1911A1

M0sby, M1911A1--My prayers for your family, peace and comfort for all of you. Your dad is at peace... in the arms of our Lord...Praise God.

M0sby, thank you for the ping.

Blessings,
trussell

If you want on/off my prayer ping list, please let me know. All requests happily honored.

[Unknowing]

Bump for poignancy.

[sweetiepiezer]

May God keep him in his tender loving care.

[Bahbah]

What a wonderful tribute.

[abn11b]

He will be remembered in the intentions at mass through the week.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetuam luceat eis.

[ex-snook]

Appreciate the reading. Well done.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

May God Welcome your father Home and Comfort his family and friends.
I am sorry for your loss.

[international american]

Well done, and thanks for sharing what would otherwise be a private moment.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

In Honor of a WW II Vet

[afnamvet]

May God's peace and love comfort you both.

[Eva]

Nice tribute, it brought tears to my eyes. Tom Mix was my grandmother's cousin, by the way.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[meadsjn]

A most touching tribute. May God bless your family in this time of loss.

[SAMWolf]

Please accept my condolences and I thank your father for his service.