OT: "The War" Many thanks

[mjmwallace]

While I am a Vietnam vet who saw some action, watching these first couple of episodes of the "The War" opened up my eyes even more, to the hardships that many had gone through. While I'm sure not everyone was there at Guadacanal, or North Africa, there was a shared pain all around. I want to say thanks to all of the men and woman who served either at home or abroad, one more time. I never had the opportunity to discuss with my dad his experiences (he nearly missed getting on to the USS Indianapolis, I believe),so if you have a father, uncle, grandfather, mother, aunt, or cousin who served or was at home during that time, this is a wonderful series to explore their thoughts and feelings. I can not fathom the pain and hardships you all experienced. Again, thanks.

MJ

[Lew Hodgett]

RE: Subject

Tonight's film brought back a lot of memories of my early childhood.

My mother saving bacon grease.

Rinsing out tin cans, removing both ends, then stamping the cans flat (To this day I rinse out cans before discarding them).

Newspapers were saved, then off to the junk yard.

I saved the foil from chewing gums wrappers.

Must have had a ball about 8"-9" in diameter before I took it to the junk yard where my joy was crushed when I found out what I thought was tin foil was actually aluminium foil.

The junk yard guy must have felt sorry for me and gave me a quarter for my effort.

Ration coupon books for everything, especially gasoline.

Natural rubber came from Asia, which was under the control of the Japs.

Synthetic rubber was at best, "poor".

You ran on bald tires with inner tubes that had patches on their patches.

War bond stamp books were sold in the grade schools.

Red stamps were $0.10, Green ones were $0.25.

When a book was full, you got a "War Bond".

There were no new cars.

Our '37 Chevy was litterly held together with #9 baling wire and what passed for duct tape of the time, by the end of the war.

Remember the 1943 steel pennies.

The copper saved could be turned into casing brass?

Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.

I still remember "VE" and "VJ" days.

There was a collective sigh of relief when "VJ" day was announced..

The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.

Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".

Lew

[George]

Not if you read even non-revisionist history, though the revisionists certainly place greater emphasis on the dissenters and their treatment by that icon of liberalism FDR.

Of course the press wasn't out there being merciless to our allies and glossing over our enemies' misconduct. Betting we'd have had people listening and eventually, as Dr Goebbels said, the lie would have become the truth.

[dpb]

Lew Hodgett wrote: ...

...

Great recollections, agree w/ all.

However, the US only "got through" in four years owing to sitting the first two out.

--

[J. Clarke]

Do you have any idea how tiresome this continuous whining about the date on which the US started shooting in WWII has become?

Should have annexed the UK while we had an army stationed there.

[Just Wondering]

And how long had WWII been going on before the USA got involved? And what was the cost, in % of GNP, dollars adjusted to today's values, and not least in human lives?

[Curran Copeland]

[dpb]

I simply stated a matter of fact that other than lend-lease (which was not an insubstantial effort in both materiel and lives and was absolutely critical to the survival of England and a testament to the joint resolve of FDR and WC) there was no national resolve to actually participate actively until after Pearl Harbor. Merely a point at which we actually became active participants was the reason it was over for us in four years. Having finished reading Churchill's four-volume history relatively recently, the closeness of the margin of outcome is fresh in my mind.

Since it appears you seem to have interpreted my comment as coming from a "whining" Brit, I'll point out I am US and am quite content to have them retain their sovereignty.

[Larry Blanchard]

Just remember the winners write the histories :-).

[GoForward]

Yes, of course, we would have been far better off with a proper right winger who would have contracted with his favorite corporation to screw up supplies, construction projects, food commissaries, etc; put in a blow-hard Defense Secy who would have fired generals who said they need more troops, then claim that he's giving the (new) generals what they ask for; tell the population that they can be patriotic by going out shopping; sit back while the good ole boy military hierarchy shafts wounded soldiers and the families of dead ones.

A lesson learned and well-practiced by our very own uber-neocons.

[willshak]

on 9/26/2007 2:35 AM Lew Hodgett said the following:

I was there too. Don't forget the metal bottle caps that we saved, and the aluminum pots and pans given up, and the steel pennies, and the blackouts. I lived in NYC at the time and the fire truck sirens were exchanged for claxon horns, so as not to confuse fire trucks with air raid sirens. Also watched tens of airplanes flying overhead off to Europe. I went to grammar school with lots of kids whose fathers were overseas.