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~Tribute to M1911A1's Father-WWII Veteran~
Freeper M1911A1
| October 24, 2004
| M0sby
Posted on 10/24/2004 10:29:19 AM PDT by 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 dads story is the sort that captures a boys imagination. As a young boy himself, he confessed to mischief that I could never hope to match, including filling a mean old neighbors 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 mothers concern over the awful casualty lists, he volunteered to be drafted, so he could justly say to his mother that he hadnt 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 wars 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 Hogans 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 78s, 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 lifes 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 fathers story is the sort that captures a boys 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
TOPICS: Announcements; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: alcan; banglist; father; m1911a1; veteran; wwii
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To: M0sby
What a wonderful tribute. Prayers for your family.
To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; M0sby; M1911A1
Thanks for the ping Tonk.
Prayers for the family of a man who wa an American Patriot. So typical of the greatest generation, they never gave it a second thought they just did what needed to be done at the time - small things - like saving America.
Your father will be in good company, as he will be there with my father who was in the Pacific theater, and the disarming of China after the war. Went to Alaska a year after he got out.
Rest in Peace, Jack.
22
posted on
10/24/2004 11:47:57 AM PDT
by
Issaquahking
(9/11 should remind every true American how to vote on 11/2. Go Bush!)
To: M0sby
What a beautiful tribute! I thank God for your father-in-law, a hero to our country and for all who love him.
To: M0sby
A wonderful tribute. Thanks for sharing Jack with us.
24
posted on
10/24/2004 11:59:47 AM PDT
by
Diver Dave
(Stay Prayed Up)
To: M0sby
Thanks so much for sharing your Father-in-Law's story with us.
Prayers for all.
To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; M1911A1; M0sby
An old soldier has rejoined the members of his unit that have gone before him. Know that when 1SG St. Peter calls his name at company roll call in that muster formation above he'll bark out again a resounding and youthful "Here!"
26
posted on
10/24/2004 12:05:32 PM PDT
by
SandRat
(Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
To: M0sby
Daughter of a deceased WWII Vet bump.
I'm sorry he's gone from you. I love the Grumpy Grampa name.
27
posted on
10/24/2004 12:08:48 PM PDT
by
katnip
(Defeating John Kerry is like giving Vietnam Veterans the Homecoming they never had)
To: M0sby
God bless you all in your loss. May he rest in a hero's peace.
28
posted on
10/24/2004 12:13:29 PM PDT
by
StarCMC
(It's God's job to forgive Bin Laden; it's our job to arrange the meeting.)
To: M0sby
What your Husband has written, though saying goodbye, knows how lucky he was to have his Father. And his sons will know, and become the men that Grumpy taught his son to be!!
God's speed.
29
posted on
10/24/2004 12:25:36 PM PDT
by
OldSgt.
(USMC, Nam Vet, HMM-165)
To: M0sby; M1911A1
30
posted on
10/24/2004 12:32:22 PM PDT
by
HiJinx
(Support Our Troops! www.ProudPatriots.com)
To: M0sby; M1911A1; 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
My condolences to you and your families, and a sincere thank you for sharing the story of your father.
Thanks for the ping, Tonk.
31
posted on
10/24/2004 1:00:30 PM PDT
by
brityank
(The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional.)
To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub; M1911A1; mosby
May Jack rest in God's peace. A grateful America thanks Jack for his service to our country -- as a soldier, as a father, and as another unsung hero: a father who cares (on many levels) for his wife and family.
Prayers and condolences to M1911A1, MOsby, and your family and friends for your loss.
32
posted on
10/24/2004 2:28:52 PM PDT
by
Fawnn
(Canteen wOOhOO Consultant and CookingWithPam.com person - Faith makes things possible, not easy.)
To: M0sby
That was a beautiful tribute to a man who sounds outstanding. Condolences to the family and give your husband a hug!
To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
34
posted on
10/24/2004 2:49:50 PM PDT
by
blackie
(Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
To: M1911A1; M0sby
RIP Grumpy Grandpa Jack
Thank you for your service to America
35
posted on
10/24/2004 2:53:40 PM PDT
by
Kathy in Alaska
(God Bless America and Our Troops Who Protect Her)
To: Freesofar
RIP Freesofar's Father
Thank you for your service to America
36
posted on
10/24/2004 2:56:32 PM PDT
by
Kathy in Alaska
(God Bless America and Our Troops Who Protect Her)
To: M0sby; M1911A1
How blessed you are to have "grumpy grandpa". May the Holy Spirit send you hugs and comfort as God takes Jack in His arms.
To: M0sby; joanie-f
Thank you for posting this. It is a topic of ongoing interest, and such tales need to be told.
This summer, I had the singluar privilige to visit spend a month in Europe for the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. This included an extended tour of many of the battlefields of western Europe.
If I had to pick one aspect of this experience that stood out, it was the veterans themselves. We had a tour group of about 800 at its peak, 300 of which were WWII veterans. A more exceptional group of Americans I've never met.
As it turned out, we had two veterans of the 28th Division with us. Veterans of the Hurtgen and the Bulge (both of which we visited). Strangely enough, it was a 101st Airborne paratrooper who gave our group a brief talk in the town square at Noville, Belgium who mentioned the importance of a massive firefight that took place east of there in on December 17, 1944 by the 110th Infantry -- a regiment of the 28th Div.
The 110th had been hit hard by the initial German advance, as had the other two regiments of the 28th. They were pushed back through the center of the German advance, and near the town of Wiltz, I believe, turned and made what amounted to a last stand. Outnumbered and outgunned, the 110th Infantry fought almost to the last man. It was a 20th century Alamo. But they bought 12 precious hours with their blood. Time, without which, the 101st Airborne would have been hard-pressed to make it into Bastogne to set up a defensive perimiter.
But for a few obscure history texts, this crucial clash of arms has been ignored. One of our tour guides -- a military history professor from a school in Missouri -- is starting research on a book chronicling the sacrifices of the 28th. I will look for it with interest.
We had a substantial contingent from Easy Company/506th Parachute Infantry Regiment with us. A group from the now legendary Band of Brothers, thanks to HBO and Stephen Ambrose. Several more wanted to come, but, due to failing health, were unable to make the trip.
Coming home from Europe, it occured to me that, as these men pass on, I will not merely not the passing of historical figures, I'll be losing a friend.
As one whose interest in WWII has always been keen, I come away with a newfound appreciation for what these men endured, and the tremendous service they performed for their country, and the world in general. After visiting the Auschwitz death camp, later in June, I can say that any American who fired a shot in anger to destroy the Nazi nightmare deserves a special decoration made of solid gold.
And on the passing of you father-in-law, I can offer you the Scripture verse of II Timothy 4:7. . .
"I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.
Your father-in-law definitely kept the faith.
38
posted on
10/24/2004 6:14:03 PM PDT
by
Euro-American Scum
(A poverty-stricken middle class must be a disarmed middle class)
To: M0sby
My tribute to your Father in Law as well.
Reading this brought up memories of my own Father and my Father in Law, both WWII Vets and both sadly gone from this earthly life.
39
posted on
10/24/2004 6:32:39 PM PDT
by
TASMANIANRED
(What did Kerry know and when did he know it?)
To: M0sby; Texas Termite; LaDivaLoca; wingnuts'nbolts; manna; Okies love Dubya 2; Fawnn; ...
Oh M0sby, what a BEAUTIFUL tribute to your father-in-law. What a wonderful man he was. I pray for your family, that they know his passing from this world, takes him into his Father's arms.
We all love you. Tell your hubby we're here for him.
God bless you!!!!!
40
posted on
10/24/2004 11:12:30 PM PDT
by
Brad’s Gramma
(Charlie Brooker is the UK's very own special Michael Moore. Aren't THEY lucky?)
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