Posted on 09/26/2007 2:30:49 PM PDT by VOA
Did not know that. Again, a "non combat, support role" but incredibly dangerous.
I have a friend that's a smoke jumper. It's a profession for crazy people!
I think it’s been ‘OK’. I liked the Civil War series MUCH better by Ken Burns myself, but this hasn’t been all bad either. I’d give it a B- to a C+, but that’s just MHO.
At first I thought it was going to be more about social injustices...the Japanese Americans put into internment camps (the proper term by the way, I DETEST people using “concentration camps” in this instance, our camps were NOTHING like the German camps), black Americans...but in another show he displayed Japanese Americans fighting in Italy (the most decorated U.S. unit in WW2) as well as black marines fighting in Japan. (I never knew that happened!) Not to mention black paratroopers. So in one sense he showed the mistakes but in antoher sense he showed how we did alot of things right as well.
And eventually he seemed to get off that subject all together, and more properly put into perspective the sacrifices in North Africa, Anzio, Normandy, the Pacific AND at home.
I also liked on...I think it was CNN, he made a point to let people know that this generation is dying by about 1000 PER DAY! That their story shouldn’t be forgotten, etc.
Which I can attest to being a hospice nurse!
I could spend weeks on here telling stories myself! Not just overseas but storeis on the homefront as well. To date I’ve met a P-38 lightening pilot, several Jewish holocaust survivors (one showed me his tattoo), black, white, male and female (fellow nurses, one a prisoner in Japan) all now passed on.
I still keep in close touch with a navigator/bombradier retired Colonel in the 8th Air Force. Healthy as a horse, picked blueberries in his yard with him the other day. He said the day after the surrender the commander told the guys to “go see what you’ve done”. So he and his buddies got into their B-17s and flew low over Germany for the first time ever, and the photos they’d seen just didn’t do it justice. He said that that entire country had been practically leveled after years of bombing. They were shocked at just what virtually every city looked like. Or what was left of almost every city. And some, he said virtually nothing was left standing.
He also talks about how much this countrey has lost it’s way. And how those hard lessons are rapidly being lost!
And of course he’s right!
Implying that the four Japanese carriers were all sunk at the same time at Midway, and ignoring the Japanese counterattack on YORKTOWN goes a bit beyond superficiality. The analysis of the battle of Kasserine Pass was pitiful.
It’s nice to see what amounts to an oral history of the War by its veterans, but to not seek input from veterans from our Allies, or our enemies, makes for a VERY one dimensional, and in the end tedious series. Doesn’t hold a candle to Burns’ Civil War opus.
Criticising the closing of the boozers rather than allowing a D-Day celebration by lifting a few beers seems a bit extreme, but I wouldn’t criticise the decision, not from this remove.
I see a lot of black and Hispanic faces when our local PBS station lists the photos and names of the fallen.
I would agree with that.
I agree with many of the criticisms others have levied. It could be worse, but could be better. I would give it a B-. The good is the footage and the veterans own words. The bad is the focus of the series. WWII is an extremely fascinating subject, and yet Burns has managed to bore me at times.
Anyhow, my wife’s grandfather passed away two weeks ago. At his funeral there was a 21-gun salute. He served in the Navy and fought in the battles of Saipan, Leyte Gulf, Philipine Sea, and Okinawa. He was wounded several times and had reconstructive surgery on his face the day they raised The Flag over Iwo Jima.
He never talked about the war ever. I think it was his way of coping, but it left his family uneducated about his experiences. What little we know is from my mother-in-law slowly prying info out of him. I never spoke to him about the war, but as he was dying I sent him a letter thanking him for his service to our country. Not that thanks from a spoiled, easy-life youngster like myself means much, but not all generation Xers take it for granted.
This episode more than the others, imo, had many touching and chilling moments. I got the shivers when the number of planes sent as the “pre-show” and the number of battleships crossing the Channel were mentioned. It was do or die time. I knew this before, but the way it was presented really gave me pause (and chills). The fact that TEN miles of advancement was a huge victory haunted me today as I drove to work. I am 15 miles from the nearest town. It stuck with me.
So there’s no black soldiers overseas right now? Think before you post.
Thanks for your comment berdie. It reminded me of the day I visited Gettysburg and saw the field where Pickett's charge took place. It was a quarter to a mile across, a long way, and to think of the fire that those men had to walk into was something I will never forget it has stuck with me.
Sherman said "War is hell" and he was right.
Oh, brother is that a fact! Worth repeating.
Hmmm. Did the narrative imply that? I didn't catch it. Anyway, like I said, TV by it's nature is cursory. You will not find great depth in anything done by television. Just take what you can from it instead of nit-picking it to death.
You will not find great depth in anything done by television. Just take what you can from it instead of nit-picking it to death.
...that’s kind of my take too. I had no idea black marines served in the Pacific, yet now I know thanks to his piece.
I think the entire idea is that we not forget this generation’s sacrifices. They stepped up to the plate. Just as every generation before us has, from the Revolutionary War on. Now, they’re dying by the thousands every week and there’s simply not that many still around!
Oh, I could not agree more, with the possible exception that there are not that many still around. I think that those type of people will always be around, they are today serving in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. There will always be patriots who will do what is necessary if called upon. This is one great country we live in my friend, regardless of what the media would have us think. God Bless this great country!
Absolutely agreed!
I meant of that particulkar generation not still being around.
Which brings me to one that said sadly too many are forgetting their lessons, and how different the country has become...
Yes, I knew that. I just used your point as a way to point out the brave patriotic men and women we have today and have always had. I've been watching "The War" and it was the same in the earliest stages of that war too. We were thought to be weak by the Japs and Germans. And we probably were. We got our asses kicked in the early campaign in Africa. But we learned. We are a strong people and will always be if tested. I think we are being tested today by the Islamo fanatics. They see us as weak and corrupted just as our enemy did before WWII. We must keep strong, and we will.
I couldn’t agree more. I think we’re slow to anger, but...
well you know.
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