Posted on 11/11/2009 7:58:57 PM PST by org.whodat
Vernon Davis, who turns 90 on Nov. 14, served in World War II.
“Three years, 10 months, and seven days,” Davis said with an ever-present smile. You might think that Davis participates among a litany of veterans organizations, parades, events and such.
Fighting was fierce during those culminating days and nights of World War II. By April 20, Vernon along with less than 50 other men navigated to the top of Mike Ridge on Okinawa. About 500 well-fortified Japanese were their foes.
According to a citation given to him, Vernon and the band of less then 50 men had “slept 2 days out of 6, no food.”
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tricities.com ...
For a 90 year old man he is one hell of a tight end.
Brass ones, I do believe.
For the most part, the real heroes don’t talk about it.
Terrific compelling story. Five members of my family served in WWII, only one in the South Pacific and he came home a alcoholic...
Bless you,Vernon. Your responses to your service in WWII are very similar to my grandfather’s in WWII and WWI. Yours was an extraordinary generation from whom we can learn much. Thank you more than I can ever say for stopping the spread of Hitler and his Nazi regime. I pray history will not find our generation wanting in dealing with our Islamo-Nazi threat of today.
One of my brothers was a combat engineer went ashore shortly after DDay, my other brother was a bombardier on a B17 and spent time in Stalag III. Our sister was a WAC serving stateside, one BiL was a combat engineer building airfields for P47s from Omaha Beach into Germany. Other BiL was the Sailor in the Pacific and they all came home to live productive lives except the Alky and he died in 1962. They are all gone now with a Sister and Brother passing away this year...
BTW... the drinking BiL had earned the right to drink as he was veteran of 2 or 3 major Naval battles of the Pacific...
" on March 17, 1945, the seriously damaged Ludendorff Bridge collapsed into the Rhine River, killing twenty-eight engineers who had been trying to strengthen the bridge"
My brother talked of putting a pontoon bridge across a river and it could have been the Rhine. He said the Germans would drift a boat with explosives downstream and his platoon would stand on the bank and shoot at those boats until the day a bullet ricocheted off the water and killed a Colonel on the other side.
My sister worked with Bill Nellis who led a platoon to free the prisoners at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. I believe Ollie North spoke of Bill in his War Stories of the daring raid. Bill loved to hunt deer, fly fish and water ski..
I never can get my own Daddy to talk about it... The most I can get are where/when he’d been.
That’s a shame as another part of history will die with his passing...
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