~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

---

[Tribune7]

That's a very moving tribute and he must have been a wonderful man.

[Mo1]

What a beautiful tribute for a good man. My prayers are with him and your family {{HUGS}}

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[Ol' Sox]

Sincere condolences on the death of your father. My family would like to extend our thanks for his sacrifice that bought the gift of freedom that we enjoy.

[Ol' Sox]

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).

I am sorry that I missed your post. Let me now extend to you my condolences and the thanks of my family for the gift of freedom that we enjoy due to his unselfish service.

[Veto!]

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.

M1911A1 can certainly turn a great phrase. Many thanks for the ping to this important thread. Hat's off to the great old soldier and condolences to his family.

God bless,
Veto!

[Lockbar]

Thank you to your family for your Dad's service.

[Levante]

Thank you for sharing.

God bless and keep your father/father-in-law.

=)

[Shandon Belle]

This is so beautiful and a great tribute! It was such a wonderful read, it left me wanting to know more...so well written.

You and your family will be in my prayers. I'm sure your Dad/Father-in-Law is smiling down and watching over you.

May his soul rest in peace knowing how truly loved he was. What more to want from life than what he had...God,Country and Family.

[joanie-f]

Thank you for affording us the privilege of reading this remarkable essay, M0sby. And thank you, E-A-S, for pinging it to my attention.

I lost my Dad three years ago at the age of eighty-four, as was your father-in-law, M0sby. He, and your father-in-law, and those men with whom E-A-S was privileged this summer to share the experience of a lifetime in Normandy and other significant World War II battlefields of western Europe, were cut from entirely different cloth that those of us who are the children of their generation. And that special fabric from which they were formed is even further removed from our children’s generation.

Those of us who are the children of ‘the greatest generation’ would do well to reflect on your husband’s recollection, ‘I was very conscious of this faults, sometimes without thought for the furnace that forged them.’ Indeed, the men of our fathers’ generation endured a forging the intensity of which we have not experienced, and are really incapable of comprehending.

I attended a Bush rally last week in Hershey. The President was introduced by Maj. Dick Winters (who now calls Hershey his home) – Winters commanded Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division from Normandy to Berchtesgaden. His heroism was memorably protrayed in the acclaimed mini-series, ‘Band of Brothers’.

At Hershey, Maj. Winters introduced the President by saying, ‘Mr. President, you are … (at this point he broke down slightly, and had to take a few seconds to compose himself before continuing) … Mr. President, you are surrounded by the Band of Brothers from central Pennsylvania!’ The hearfelt, moving introduction was received with a standing ovation.

I (and both of you) may, in a small way, understand why this charactered man, who has been forged in ways that we can only vaguely, vicariously imagine, broke down momentarily when he referenced his band of brothers. I suspect that two of your comments, E-A-S (‘A more exceptional group of Americans I've never met’ … ‘as these men pass on, I will not merely note the passing of historical figures, I'll be losing a friend’) encapsulates what we as a civilization are losing with the passing of each of these genuine heroes. Men who possessed an inner strength, courage, humility, sense of duty, allegiance to country, and unwavering commitment to defend the divinely-bestowed gift of human freedom that resulted in an eternal legacy – a legacy that they did not seek, and that many of them even feel uncomfortable acknowledging. Their humility, and enduring sense of duty, will not allow it.

God bless them all. They have blessed us beyond our ability comprehend, let alone repay.

~ joanie

[Euro-American Scum]

According to E Company vets Shifty Powers and Paul Rodgers, Richard Winters was too ill to make the trip to Normandy in June. His presence was sorely missed, and would have made an unforgettable experience spectacular beyond description.

I envy you having met him. He is a fine example of where greatness and humility come together.

But then, they all are.

[M1911A1]

Thank you very much for your kind and thoughtful replies.

I confess that MOsby posted the tribute without my foreknowledge, and I am very grateful that you have been so generous in your reception of something that truly comes from my heart.

I would like you to know that FReeper TheConservator is also a son of Jack's, and that I will certainly pass on your condolences and respects to the rest of the family. I'm sure they will find them to be a source of comfort and pride to them in a difficult time, as I most certainly have.

Very Respectfully,
M1911A1

[M0sby]

Pinging to you to this thread conservator...

[Brad’s Gramma]

I love you both, dearly.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[trussell]

My arms can't reach you so I asked Jesus to deliver this hug.

[AnAmericanMother]

God bless you all. Your dad was a great man, the green fields of Heaven are his.

My dad turns 80 this Saturday - he's a vet of N. Africa and Italy.

Everybody, don't forget to remind your children and grandchildren of the great sacrifices these men made for them . . .

[Focault's Pendulum]

This was well posted. This was well written. This was a life well lived.

[tiki]

Condolences to his family and may God rest his soul. It made me think of my father and I shed a tear or two but then a picture popped up in my mind of all those veterans shooting the breeze together in heaven and I had to smile.