Do You Know Any Living WWII Veterans?

[Old Rogue]

After morning services today our church held a luncheon to celebrate the 90th birthday of Mr. Dale Bateman. Mr. Bateman is a wonderful man, and to my knowledge is the last living WWII veteran that I know personally. It's sad to think that in the not too distant future the Greatest Generation will exist only in history books and our memories. Just wondering how many other loungers know WWII vets who are still with us?

 

[Stearmen]

Out Live Me

All the WWII veterans I have known are gone, including my father. But don't despair, we will have WWII veterans around for a a couple of more decades. The last Spanish American veteran died in either 1991 or 92. While the last WWI combat veteran Claude Stanley Choules died in 2011, there are still 28 WWI veterans still alive! If past trends hold up, the last WWII veteran will pass away some time around the year 2040 or later, assuming he was 12-15 in 1945, there were at least 200,000 underage men in the US service alone. Which means, he will probably out live me! So don't write the WWII generation off to quick!

 

[Stearmen]

On a funny side note, the last official Confederate widow died on August 17, 2008, Maudie Hopkins. I know, your saying thats 143 years after the end of the Civil War. During the hight of The Great Depression, there were lots of desperate women, and there were a number of single Confederate widowers. They had a pension of $25 or more a month, good money then. In 1939 a law was passed in Arkansas stating that a widow could not collect the pension if she was born after 1870, thus cutting off many of the widows money. Although Alberta Martin had her pension reinstated with back pay in 1996, she died in 2004.

 

[dhermann1]

My old gf's dad is still going strong at 87, God bless him. He was at Anzio, and later was in Southern France, in a mobile radio station, right behind the front. He has lots of good stories, but the worst ones he doesn't tell. Anzio was a real horror.

 

[kiwilrdg]

If you hear stories from WWII vets it is good to write them down. It would be even better to tape them. We are at a point that historical information can be preserved better than it ever has in the past. The dates and leaders in a history book gives you information on the cause of events but when you can put a face and voice on the history you can get more understanding of what happened to the people.

It is really interesting to get a vet's wife to tell about what she was doing during the same time frame.

 

[green papaya]

yes, there a still lots of WWII vets around , I still meet them often, lots of old vets age 85 - 90 are still around

I use to meet lots of them at the barber shop, lots of the old barbers are WWII vets

Ive heard lots of stories, one of the old guys that cut my hair told me he was a machine gunner in a B-17 during WWII and he had to bail out before when the plane went down over europe

also met a survivor that was in the Bataan Death March and was POW during WWII

a British vet told me the Japanese actually killed one of the officers and cooked him for dinner and they ate him

 

[dhermann1]

The aforementioned Anzio vet told me he was talking to his buddy in the adjacent foxhole one night. The next morning he saw his arm draped over the edge pf the foxhole and thought that was a rather casual pose for the guy to be taking. When he looked closer, that's all that was left of the guy, just his arm.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Not any longer. My friend Gerhard Franzky passed away this summer. He was the last WWII vet that I knew personally. (22 Regt of the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg") Gerhard Franzky. May 10, 1925 - June 24, 2012

-dixon cannon

 

[scotrace]

I know several. Th Greatest Generation is till kicking.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There's at least two or three WWII vets who sell at the militaria show I go to.

 

[30s sliphorn]

I know several in our area. One, a retired barber whom I met recently, still cuts hair at his home for the other vets he knows. He's 92, and is one of the soldiers in the background of the photo of General Patton peeing in the Rhine River.

 

[ButteMT61]

Wife's father died last year. My family, none left. I've met a lot of them at SoCal air shows over the years, including guys like Ed "Doc" Pepping, Jerome O. Oxman, etc. I love to talk with them when I get the chance. Nothing like it. And they're almost always the sweetest people you could ever meet.

 

[Canadian]

I know a few in my Lodge. One was arty, and the other was groundcrew in Holland.

Never miss a chance to thank a vet. My grandfather (a Colonel) who was an Able Seaman in the navy during WWII (his unit was being sent abroad and he was only 17 and couldn't legally ship out with them, so he got his release and joined the Royal Canadian Navy for the duration, returning to the army after the war where he was a reservist. He always said to me, "It's nothing special. It's what everybody who could did.".

Yesterday was our Vacant Chair ceremony. One of the fellow Masons told me about his service in Indo-China. We forget that there are many, many wars, and that the last true fight didn't end on V-J day.

 

[splintercellsz]

Sadly... no. But I do know some 'Nam vets. I see the WWI's every so often (it is a rare sight to see a WWII vet aroung my area), but there are more downtown (the hotels, casinos, and events are that way). But I do try to make it a habit of thanking them, but the crowds here make it hard to do sometimes. The Cons of being in a gamblin' town.

 

[KenCarsonCowgirl]

I know quite a number of them: but they are, indeed, a fading generation. We have to collect their stories as much as possible as quickly as possible! They are gold mines of stories, information, insight into a life long gone which we will never experience. And folks stick them in nursing homes and forget about them! It makes me sick!

 

[kiwilrdg]

When I was at a historic timeline event once we had set up a demolition training display and a fellow in a wheelchair asked if he could see one of the German mines. He started to explain the variations in the detenators and how to safely handle each type. Very quickly it stopped being a mockup of a training area in the field and turned into a classroom where we were being taught by an actual period instructor. After we learned about the explosives he shared stories about hes buddies that didn't make it and thanked us for honoring sappers.

When we were done his daughter thanked us because he had not spoken more than a couple of words at a time in months.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

My home town has at least 4 WW2 vets left. Jerry is going to be 98 in December 2012. He served in the South Pacific on Saipan and another island. He has one and two, purple hearts and silver star, but not sure which is 2 and which isn't. He also has a pretty good hole in his leg from Shrapnel. The Other Jerry is also from the South Pacific and was in the Artillery in New Guinea for most of the war. Frank was a Corsair pilot. He told about being in a flight of 4 corsairs and one of the newer pilots wanted to bounce the flight of 20 Zeroes. Frank said no. You'll note that Frank is still alive. Keck (real name, no kidding) was in, and was slightly infamous for shooting squirrels with a Tommy gun. Still farming at 94 and is celebrating his 70th wedding anniversary Sunday November 11, 2012. He's Married to my kindergarten teacher. Dad died in August of 2011 at 92 and was also in the South Pacific.

None of them like to talk about the icky parts (so to speak).

Later

 

[Atticus Finch]

After morning services today our church held a luncheon to celebrate the 90th birthday of Mr. Dale Bateman. Mr. Bateman is a wonderful man, and to my knowledge is the last living WWII veteran that I know personally. It's sad to think that in the not too distant future the Greatest Generation will exist only in history books and our memories. Just wondering how many other loungers know WWII vets who are still with us?

Rogue...go out to the Bagel shop and have lunch sometime. As you probably know, it’s a very popular place among the retired folk around New Bern. I'll bet Charlie or Jeff could introduce you to two or three WWII vets on any given day. In fact, I met a fellow there a couple of years ago who was a former B-29 pilot. His plane was shot down in the last days of the war and he and his crew were rescued by a submarine. Joe is still alive and still eats lunch there once or twice a week.

But I know what you’re saying. My favorite WWII vet was my father, and he passed away two years ago in July.

AF

 

[Edward]

I've known very few, in no small part due to having grown up in Northern Ireland where there was never conscription (for all the obvious reasons). My primary school headmaster (RAF bomber crew; POW, escaped back to Blighty, ended up very bitter indeed about his superiors and refused anything to do with the RBL etc for the rest of his life), an old boy in our church (BoB Spitfire pilot, no less - that's all I know, no idea about his later war service. I don't recall ever hearing him mention it, only his appearance in the local paper once on a significant anniversary, 1990, I think, and his obituaries a few years ago), and my Scoutmaster's father (a Dublin boy who joined the British Navy to fight Hitler and see the world). All now dead. I don't recall any of them ever being especially keen to talk about it.

 

[Old Rogue]

Rogue...go out to the Bagel shop and have lunch sometime. As you probably know, it’s a very popular place among the retired folk around New Bern. I'll bet Charlie or Jeff could introduce you to two or three WWII vets on any given day. In fact, I met a fellow there a couple of years ago who was a former B-29 pilot. His plane was shot down in the last days of the war and he and his crew were rescued by a submarine. Joe is still alive and still eats lunch there once or twice a week.

But I know what you’re saying. My favorite WWII vet was my father, and he passed away two years ago in July.

AF

Thanks Atticus...I'll do that. And thanks to all for sharing your personal WWII veterans stories. It's great to hear that there are still so many with us. Many years ago as a young man I spent an absolutely fascinating couple of hours in the home of one of the local WWII vets in Vanceboro (the small one-traffic light town I grew up in, Atticus knows where that is). He recounted many stories of his war experiences. You're all correct that reading it in a history book can never compare to hearing it directly from someone who experienced it personally.