Do You Know Any Living WWII Veterans?

[Two Types]

I know quite a few. However, there is one chap who always amazes me: he is 95 years old, was a pre-war British artillery officer; was at Dunkirk;joined the commandos in 1940/41; joined the parachute regiment; devised the 1st Parachute Brigade's (?) approach to Arnhem Bridge for Operation Market Garden; was captured at Arnhem Bridge but escaped; and led the advance on Kiel in May 1945 (the last British advance of the war in north-west Europe).
When I recently asked him if I could ghost-write his memoirs for him, he replied that he is rather busy and that I should wait a couple of years until he has more free time! At the age of 95 that's optimism.

 

[in/y]

My dad. Still living on his own at 86 (mom passed away some years ago). A Pacific Navy vet, was first on a subchaser around New Guinea. Later after the subchaser ran aground after a nighttime skirmish with a (probably) sub, stationed on a sea going tug around Enewetak in the Marshall Islands.

Dad in 1944

 

[rjb1]

I know several. Possibly, the most interesting is a B-24 pilot. His "off-duty" stories never cease to entertain.
Another was in the Philippines and worked on the military railroad there.
He said that the closest he ever came to getting killed was when he was "drunk as a hootie-owl" and walked off the train engine while trying to take a leak. The train was moving about 30 mph! He said if hadn't been so drunk it would have killed him.

 

[Classydame]

My grandpa is a WWII vet. He is 90, now, and still doing pretty good, even after breaking a hip at 89. He is of strong stock! Grandpa has two purple hearts from his tour in Europe. I am not sure what the name of the unit is but his job was to protect the tanks. His first injury was being blown off of a tank into a field. He was knocked unconscious. When he came to, he had find his was back to his unit. The second injury was too bad for him to go back to battle. He was shot in the upper right arm, which almost amputated. The doctors did want to amputate but he wouldn't let them. It ruined his chances for a professional baseball career.

Grandpa doesn't talk about the war much, mostly, he relates basic training stories. However, he did talk about one mission. A new lieutenant wanted to go behind enemy lines to capture high ranking Nazi's. They came across one but he was a big guy and they wanted to capture him quietly. The lieutenant thought he could go for his legs to drop him to the ground. Well, that didn't go well. They had to fight pretty hard to get him down. They didn't want to kill him because he may have had information they needed. Besides they didn't want to cause any noise. Well, luckily they didn't have to kill him. It was almost humorous when grandpa was sharing this story because he is a great story-teller. But when you think about the reality of this scenario, those men must have been scared to death.

My grandpa is my hero! He is the kindest, most generous man I know but can be tough when he has to either standing up for himself, his family or meeting health
crises.

~Regards~

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

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.

I was at the Model Kit Collectors Show in Buena Park today and saw Ed Pepping there.

 

[ChrisB]

My parents, both 89 years old. My father was in combat in Italy, 1944 , in the 349th regiment with his twin brother. He and his brother were together from the day they enlisted to the day my father was wounded. My mother was a civilian employee of the Navy until she joined the WAC in 1945.

 

[Lefty Grove]

My next store neighbor is 90 served in the glider infantry during D day, then Korea and Vietnam, my favorite vet my grandfather flew P40 war hawks during the war around the states, he passed away last year at 89.