A friend of my father in law drove one of these on D-Day and Iwo Jima. He just passed away a couple months ago.
He was the most mild manner of men.
Yeah, I imagine that after facing the hell on earth of both D-Day and Iwo Jima ... not much else left to get upset about.
He was the most mild manner of men.
When I was a kid a gentleman at our church (I found out after he died) was a Marine at Okinawa, the most gentle man I ever knew.
I went to visit a guy from church in the nursing home. He was very quiet and his wife did all the talking.
I commented on his globe and anchor tattoo and surmising that he must have been in WW II.
“Harry drove a landing craft in World War II”.
Looking at him I said “Oh - a Higgin’s Boat!”
He perked up and finally said something. “Oh - I’m surprised, not too many people know that.”
Wife: “Harry was at D-Day!”
I could see he was a bit annoyed at her, but I got up and just shook his hand again and said thank you. Then asked about their kids.
After that Harry was pretty talkative.
I’m still very proud to have met someone playing such a big role in that battle.