Just got a copy of my monthly 3rd Inf Div magazine, "Watch n the Rhine" showing the number of people serving in WW 2 and how many left. Seems that they claim that of the 16,112,566 WW 2 vets living WW 2 vets are 3,242,000. That is less than 20 percent. Unbelieveable as my self and my brother are still alive although my Dad died in 1960. But going over the bunch from my small town and counting it seems correct but unbelieveable until one thinks back to who is left. Also a good article on the women that served in the Womens Flying Training Dept in WW 2 in the class of 1942. Damn it, it makes me feel like a extenct Doo Doo bird like the rest of us still living. It DID NOT

make my day. But I guess facts are facts.

Joe: Sorry friend. Ya, all this is hard to accept. I hate reading that stuff. I don't want those kind of reminders, for it makes me think of how many friends I am missing and will be missing.

Well, I always try and look at it this way, it could be any of us from my generation, or the generation after mine that goes first. You never know who will get called home. So I say we all take one day at a time and appreciate what we have. So we focus on the positive and enjoy each others company each day, each week, each year.

Joe:-

This is hard stuff to swallow when you figure it out it comes out to almost 3 out of every 4 that were in WW II have gone. I am the only one out of 4 brothers that is on this side of the grass.

I hate the daily reminders in the death columns in the papers when I see all the flags beside the names. Each flag represents another Vet leaving us.

My wife has a nephew in the Navy Reserve who is asked to be part of an Honor Guard at funerals and he says that the times he is called on now are getting more and more every week.

Up here now the "Taps" etc is played on a tape recorder - no more live buglers!!

Sgtleo

There is not a day goes by that I don't think about this topic, and think of all the reasons why this world, and this country in particular have been made better for this 'bunch' having lived here and left their mark on society. I know I sound like a broken record, but to me...each and every one of you WWII Vets is a hero (all Allied soldiers,sailors & airmen) and will always be, and this is why I dedicate a portion of my own life to making sure your story is told to the generations which have followed...particularly in my own family, and anybody else that will listen. To all who have gone before and all who remain...God Bless You, and Thanks!

Jim

There is not a day goes by that I don't think about this topic, and think of all the reasons why this world, and this country in particular have been made better for this 'bunch' having lived here and left their mark on society. I know I sound like a broken record, but to me...each and every one of you WWII Vets is a hero (all Allied soldiers,sailors & airmen) and will always be, and this is why I dedicate a portion of my own life to making sure your story is told to the generations which have followed...particularly in my own family, and anybody else that will listen. To all who have gone before and all who remain...God Bless You, and Thanks!

 

 

Jim

Thank you Jim;; Time waits for no one. Now I try to live today the best way I can and wait for tomorrow with high anticipation. Yesterday is just a memory. I pray every chance I can for the LORD to keep me in good health and to watch over me. And I do believe he has. AT 84+ I figure I am half way there. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND ALL THE 6TH corps combat engineers. !!!! Roque

As a few of you know, I never knew my grandfather. He died in '63 of a heart attack. I was about eight months old. Everything I have learned about him came from my pop or my uncle and a lot of research.

I think that is why I really enjoy talking to you vets here, and the ones I know in person. I, for one, have never looked on generations that are older than me as a nuisance, or anything, like some of us younger folks do (42 is young compared to some I guess ) and I enjoy listening to what you have to share, whether it be wartime memories, or general life experiences. One vet in my church is always giving me poems and the like that he has written, and I gobble up each one. He has told me his stories time after time, and I enjoy them everytime he repeats them just as much as the first time I heard them.

Basically, since I kind of look at you all as surogate grandparents, I hope you guys and gals are around for quite some time to come.