Posted on 09/23/2007 8:54:51 AM PDT by submarinerswife
Edited on 09/23/2007 9:01:27 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Premeires tonight at 8pm on PBS. 7 part series
My father also flew out of Guam on B-29’s. He was the Co-Pilot and said he was on Tinian when the bomb arrived,he said he had no idea what it was. He died in 1992 of ALS (Lou Gehrig disease).
Impossible.
I've heard from Oliver Stone, Micheal Moore, and now Ken Burns.
He kept politicans out of the documentry. There's a huge difference between the two.
Band of Brothers was good, But it killed the US WW2 reenactor. After B.O.B, Everyone wanted to be 101st Airborne and everyone thought they were LT Spears.
I wish someone would do something on little Known units, like the “ Bloodbucket” A PA National Guard unit that fought hard and was almost destroyed.
Expect it since all the talking is done by those who were there and Burns is just the host.
It’s kind of like the stories on Gettysburg, which always talk about Joshua Chamberlain’s Maine regiment (and virtually no one else) on the second day.
One of my uncles was a POW to the Germans during WWII, he passed in 1992 of brain cancer.
Another uncle was with the Army Corp of Engineers that built the Radford Army Ammunition Plant near where I live (It's still cranking out munitions for our armed forces.)
Other uncles of mine have served as support for the military in some capacity or another.
Good Point.
Maybe some units need better PR people.
My father worked on a AA gun crew. Their chief duties was to shoot down Buzz Bombs hitting London. They shot down something like 8 out of 10. The Brits were very pleased.
Dad passed away when I was 3 years old, but he kept all his Company newletters and paperwork. It was very interesting reading.
So many documentaries are technically accurate, but by omission they don't show any positive things. By omission they become political.
Oh, sorry...WWII. Well. Erase my last thought. I will check it out.
Need to take Tom Hanks out for a drink, perhaps.
“I sure hope he tells the truth as my father flew the Burma Hump in WWII.
You did not know if you were going to return everytime you flew.”
YEARS ago, I read some of Ernest K. Gann’s books about his time in
early aviation and into flying transport in WWII.
His recounting of some flights (civilian and for the military)
were harrowing...and just short of being “beyond belief”.
IIRC, he talked about some of the nearly psychedelic mental effects
of flying un-pressurized transport version of the B-24.
It’s amazing that any of them returned alive from a string of those
trips.
Burns has a great track record. I’m betting this one will also be a winner. I’ll be watching.
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_thewarbrakenburnsfilm_2007-09-23
.................Coming Soon! On September 23 an in-depth, interactive Web site will be available right here. The site will feature information about the witnesses who share their experiences throughout the film; a close-up look at the four communities featured in the film; extensive information about the series and the filmmakers; and a searchable database containing hundreds items used in the making of THE WAR.
I heard his interview with Bob Costas,where he said there was lots of critism against Lincoln during the Civil war,and FDR in WWll,and then proceeded to critise President Bush for the war on terror.Apparently the irony went right over his head.
PBS’s site also has a downloadable viewers guide, for the teachers amongst us.
I plan on taping it, then dvr-ing it for a really loooonnnnng flight.
He was section chief for a battery of 105's that fired regularly at a mountain called "Ol' Papasan". This mountain was honeycombed with tunnels that the N.Koreans dug to get past our lines. Sometimes, they would fire for 48 hours straight; at night, the gun barrels would glow red.
Dad said that mountain was about 40 feet shorter when he left, and a lot of N.Koreans were killed there when the tunnels caved in on them....
He fought in the campaigns in the Ardennes, Central Europe, Naples-Foggis, Rhineland, and Rome-Arno.
BTW all with the wrong blood type listed on his dog-tag. When he came home and married my mom, he got back the blood test. He did not have type O, but A+.
I am curious if he gets into any of the footage since he was standing by one of the photographers as Monte Cassino was being bombed.
He died when he was 55, the age I will be in less than one month.
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