"The War" (by Ken Burns) Part 3 of 7; Airing on PBS @ 7PM Central 9-24-07

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[VOA]

This is a "heads-up" for the airing of "The War", the Ken Burns
(Florentine Films) production on PBS.

[VOA]

Only bad girls go to New York.

Great line from the mother to the daughter in Waterbury, CT.

[mware]

Italy in the spring. My dad got trench foot so bad, they considered taking off his feet. Thank God for pencillin, which was being used for infections, it saved his feet.

[mware]

They might talk about Normandy tonight. The same day that our troops landed there, the 5th army took Rome.

[VOA]

“Italy in the spring.”

I got to hear a bit about Anzio from an organic chemistry prof. during grad. school.

He talked about how he’d visit a neighboring fox-hole just to break the
tension...return to his foxhole/dugout...and in a minute or two his friends
would vanish in a direct hit.

Not the sort of story you get out profs that were draft age during Vietnam.
I don’t think I ever met a tenured prof from that era who’d done a hitch.

[mware]

My dad was at Cassino. He spoke with respect of the german soldiers who were at Cassino.

[Interious]

Too much attention paid to the status of Japanese and Black Americans During the war. Yes of course, it was horrendous and shameful in retrospect; but somehow it seems out of place and jarring in this Documentary.

The treatment of minorities during WWII may have been best left to a Doc dedicated that to that subject alone. Maybe not—I don’t know.

Overall, the more I watch, the more I think it doesn’t quite congeal. He’s trying to do too much — oscillating between war theaters and the conditions at home.

[VOA]

As for the voices of “The War”, that Katherine Phillips (of Mobile, AL)...
I think she’s about as close to Shelby Foote (of “The Civil War”) as
we’re gonna’ get during this series.

[SE Mom]

My son called me about 15 mins ago and said Ma- you want to know what war’s like- turn this on...

I can’t believe I didn’t know it was on..but I knew FR would have a thread..

Has it been this good all night?

[mware]

Wow cool cartoon about changing bacon fat to glycerin.

[SE Mom]

Amazing, isn’t it...

My mom used to tell me about rationing- and how ONCE in a blue moon they would get a little real butter...it was like winning the lotto...and they gave all their iron beds too..

What a country!

[mware]

I tell ya what I give those men who were black and joined the Corp credit. Their boot camp must have been right out of hell.

[mware]

My grands lived in the countryside so they were able to can lots of stuff.

To earn extra money for Christmas they would go out pineconing. They got something like 5 cents for every 100 pine cones they collected.

[VOA]

Too much attention paid to the status of Japanese and Black Americans During the war. Yes of course, it was horrendous and shameful in retrospect; but somehow it seems out of place and jarring in this Documentary.

Well, I suspect that PBS probably insisted such agenda items had
to be included.

And some decent metion of it surely should be part of it.
BUT...
Giving the eternally-p-ssed-off Prof. John Hope Franklin a nice spot
to spout was just a bit too much.

AND, when Burns included mention of the 442nd "Go For Broke" in the
Inouye segment...why not go on and really talk about it?
Well, maybe Burns does later. But to just glance over it after
more of the internment-talk seems to be Burns just wanting to
tell the "Wasn't America awful then" story.

And as for the Japanese-American internment, it's an object of
obsession in academia. I remember when Tammy Bruce (talk-show
host in LA) went back to finish her undergrad degree at USC...
she made the mistake of saying in class something like "maybe it
was not a totally bad idea given how badly the war in the Pacific
was going".
Bruce said she felt lucky to escape intact given the response of
fellow students and the teacher.

And Tammy Bruce is the former head of the Los Angeles chapter
of The National Organization for Women. And a lesbian.

Amazing when liberal academia decides it's time to dine on a member
of one of their favorite "victim" classes.

And I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for Burns to mention
it was a Democrat (FDR) and the Census Bureau that helped facilitate
the round-up.
With data that the Census Bureau had promised would NEVER be used
for any purpose other than producing the final published census.

[freedom4me]

Is it just me, or does the female voice narrating the photos seem weird? Do you think it could be a “mistake”. Last night’s program had no such narration.

[mware]

Those 88’s were murder.

[mware]

would have been nice to mention Bob Dole who was gravely wounded an Anzio.

[VOA]

Now they are showing the German rail guns hitting Anzio.
Those were a big part of what my old prof. talked about.

He said that he had a freaky experience when, after the war, he was sent
stateside to some Army base.
He said he nearly thought he was going insane because he started hearing
again the sound of the rail guns.

Turned out our army had transported one to the base my prof was in stateside.
I guess the gun was studied partly for artillery purpose and for future
space work due to the height the shells could reach.

[Interious]

Good points VOA.

[SuzanneC]

Have you heard Andy Andrews relate the Chamberland’s story? Totally riveting.

[mware]

Interesting they are talking about the letters home. After dad died we put together two volumes of the V-mail he sent home. Hardly any of them spoke of the discomfort. He talked about the weather alot and the guys in his unit. Talked alot about food and the care packaged they sent him too.

They shared the packages from home especially the food. Yum-Yum cakes held up pretty good as well as white potato fudge.