Since it is June 6 lets hear some discussion...war stories, family members in the war, and personal opinions.
I mean the military channel is one of my favorites.

How bout great books?
For me:
Winds of War
War and Remembrance
Shifty's war
Band of brothers
Unbroken
A Bridge Too Far.

None of my relatives stormed Normandy that I know of. My grandfather had my dad stay home and work the farm while his brothers, my two uncles joined the Army. The older was wounded in N. Africa. He survived OK but walked with a limp the rest of his life. The younger uncle made it through unscathed.

My first step-father was in the Navy in Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He didn't talk about it much, only to say that he and everyone around him ran like hell in a panic when the bombing began until the alarms sounded for all to get to general quarters (battle stations) - if they could find them. He never spoke anything else of it the rest of his life.

My second step-father joined the Marines because that uniform was a "girl getter." It also got him a long ride in the Pacific where he was lucky enough to survive two island invasions with his small artillery crew. He had the fun job of dragging the wheeled cannon off the landing craft and up the beaches where they shelled fortified Japanese positions. Then he got malaria and was shipped to San Francisco and missed the next island invasion where a lot more Marines were killed. The war was about over when he recovered.

He related a funny story of going with my mom to her 40th high school reunion. He wasn't familiar with that part of her background. Mom attended Auburn high school with a lot of Japanese-American classmates (who were interned during the war and lost their farms in the valley). My step-dad said when he walked into the reunion gathering place he couldn't decide if he should start shooting or take cover. I could forgive his long-term racism, mis-directed as it was considering how Mom's Japanese friends and their families were treated during the war.

An old roommates father fought in the Pacific during WWII. I was helping him move one day and while moving boxes noticed some old photo's. They where pictures he had taken that included pieces of kamikaze's spread across the deck of his ship and one of VJ Day from the bow of his ship. Weird to see such a historically significant picture from a different angle.

I asked him about it and all he had to say was a bunch of racial slurs and f-bombs. Some folks have earned bigotness.

I'm looking forward to visiting the WWII Memorial next time I'm in D.C.

BB, you said, "Some folks have earned bigotness." Without judging the rest of your post, I must tell you that may be one of the most ill informed lines I have ever read on this board, and that is saying a lot.

Interesting response, Eddie...no doubt you are one who has not been there.....
See the movie Gran Torino?
Some things die hard.

Read all those but Shifty's War. I'll have to hunt it down.

Spend months on end scrapping your buddies off the deck by suicide kamikazes and then come talk to me. The guy is going to be 100 years old in two years so I don't think he is going to change .

And I'm not real sure how an observation can be ill informed. It is what it is.

"Definition of BIGOT
: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance"

That would describe Arnie to a T. Having never walked in his shoe's or scrapped a buddy off the deck of a burning ship I'm not going to judge.

Folks should read about the Pacific War. Both sides did some rather unspeakable things to the other. One did NOT want to be taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys are two of the recent books that may explain the resentment harbored by some.

Another worthy book-that should be part of American History in middle schools. "In Harms Way"

On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained undetected by the navy for nearly four days and nights. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to stay alive, fighting off sharks, hypothermia, and dementia. By the time rescue arrived, all but 317 men had died. The captain's subsequent court-martial left many questions unanswered: How did the navy fail to realize the Indianapolis was missing? Why was the cruiser traveling unescorted in enemy waters? And perhaps most amazing of all, how did these 317 men manage to survive?Interweaving the stories of three survivors -- the captain, the ship's doctor, and a young marine -- journalist Doug Stanton has brought this astonishing human drama to life in a narrative that is at once immediate and timeless. The definitive account of a little-known chapter in World War II history, In Harm's Way is destined to become a classic tale of war, survival, and extraordinary courage.

My Uncle Chuck, who I was named after, was a Navy Physicians Mate 2nd Class (corpsman) and assigned to the 1st Marines. He was part of the first wave to hit the beach at Peleliu, Palau, on Sept. 15, 1944. The enemy knew that killing corpsmen would cause more problems with the wounded so they were a target even though they were not armed and wore the red cross on the arms of their uniforms. Uncle Chuck was killed on 9/23/44 and is buried there. His name is on the wall on the westside of Benaroya Hall in Seattle with other names of Washington military members killed in the service. Dad and Uncle Chuck were good friends and Dad was introduced to my Mom by my Uncle. In 1940, right out of high school, Dad was hired as an machinist apprentice at Keyport. Since he was working at a military support facility when the war started, he was not eligible for the draft. After Uncle Chuck was killed, he quit and enlisted in the Marines. He was onboard a ship steaming toward Japan to be part of the planned invasion when the bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the Japanese surrendered. His ship was diverted and ordered to the Bikini Atoll to be part of the atom bomb test. He was one of the first Marines on site after the test.

My Dad never served in harm's way. He was a flight instructor for
the Navy in Southern California. He served in that capacity for the
duration. Although he did draw hazardous duty pay. Considering
how many failed flight school the hard way that was probably
earned.

Have many relatives who were in the wars. Grew up with a neighbor who stormed the beach on D Day and another neighbor who was interred along with his family and lost everything. Had a great uncle pull a roman candle on D Day and shattered both legs landing in a swamp. He ended up several inches shorter after being put back together. Most never talked about it with those that weren't there. But in family reunion type gatherings it was obvious who fought and who didn't in the war as the vets would form their own group right away.

Best reads, IMO, are pre-US involvement in the war. Nobody knows exact numbers but it's estimated China lost up to 20 million and the USSR 23 million. My father worked with a guy who was in the german army on the Russian front. Pure hell. One tactic of the Russians was to send wave after wave at you trying to run out your ammo. In the rear they had sharpshooters ordered to kill anyone who retreated.

Slab, you said, "Interesting response, Eddie...no doubt you are one who has not been there..... See the movie Gran Torino? Some things die hard."

But, die they must in order for us as a species to evolve. No, I was not there but it is important to remember that the victors define the history of war. It is also important to remember that bigotry is flat out stupid.

Have you looked up the definition of bigot?

Does it fit your comment?

Concerning bigots I found this clever quote that seems to apply to many.......I'm certain that I'm the only one, though.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. described bigots with the following quote:

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract."

Bigotry is wrong, but it isn't always irrational. In this case we're discussing soldiers who saw their comrades die at the hands of soldiers of another race or culture. In cases like this, it is entirely rational for these folks to harbor negative feelings for Japanese, Germans, or whomever the enemy was. What makes it wrong is their tendency to aggregate all members of that race or culture and throughout time, thereby including more who aren't or weren't the enemy than were.

At least in the Pacific it wasn't just having comrades killed in combat. It was what happened to them after "capture".

At least part of the issue in the Pacific was that neither side considered the other to be really human.

According to the book "Unbroken" the Air Corp's had way more non combat related deaths (35,000) than actual deaths incurred for Air's Corps during both of the Pacific and European wars.

A lot of experimenting going on. Plane crashes all over the country at training bases. One of which was in Ephrata WA.

To us the Japanese seemed barbaric and yet we were considered
barbarians by the Japanese. If you notice there were damn few
Sons of Nippon taken prisoner before Okinawa.