70 years ago today

[Red Oak]

[ralph]

I was talking to an old Gent on the internet , he said that he was going to attend the Commemoration .

[Red Oak]

Harlon Henry Block of Yorktown Texas, Killed in Action March 1st, 1945 20 years of age.

PFC Franklin Runyon Sousley of Hill Top Kentucky, Killed in Action March 21st, 1945 19 years of age.

Sgt. Michael Strank of Jarabina, Czechoslovakia, Killed in Action March 1st, 1945 25 years of age.

Cpl. René Arthur Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire, Died October 12, 1979 54 years of age.

Cpl. Ira Hamilton Hayes of Sacaton, Arizona, Died January 24th, 1955 32 years of age.

HM John Henry Bradley of Antigo, Wisconsin, Died January 11, 1994 70 years of age.

[BigTex]

Which one is Brian Williams?

[BillB]

Which one is Brian Williams?

He's the one in front of Bill O'Reilly.

[GFB]

Does the guy in back have breasts?

[planosteve]

If you asked a wounded soldier or marine what hit him, you’d hardly be ready for the answer, “My buddy’s head,” or his sergeant’s heel or his hand or a Japanese leg, complete with shoe and puttees, or the West Point ring on his captain’s severed hand.

Men split into pieces, the head here, the legs there, the torso…unknown. Severed heads thought to be mops. Entrails, always entrails.

It wasn’t just the body parts, or lack of parts, that drove men mad; the fear, the constant, continuous, ever-present fear. Not only on the front line. Repeated tours on the “Murmansk run”; suffering depth-charges while in a submarine.

Fear induced vomiting, losing control of the bowels, urinating in their pants – common events for those so subjected. One soldier, realizing his sergeant had just “pissed his pants,” and who then felt liberty to admit he did as well, was told by the Sergeant, “welcome to the war.”

It wasn’t just wounds and death: dysentery, pneumonia, malaria, freezing, burning. And madness, mental breakdowns.

Inevitably, all will break down if in combat long enough….Each moment of combat imposes a strain so great that men will break down in direct relation to the intensity and duration of their experience.

…men will inevitably go mad in battle and…no appeal to patriotism, manliness, or loyalty to the group will ultimately matter.

Frontline soldiers, reduced to quivering wrecks. Not quite as advertised.