m10bob
Posts: 8622
Joined: 11/3/2002 From: Dismal Seepage Indiana Status: offline
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When Pearl Harbor was attacked...my dad was twenty years old and living a very comfortable life. He was employed at Allison's making engines for the P-39 and P-40. He made great wages and was driving a big black (second hand) Cadillac with the spare tires mounted on the rear of the front fenders. His job would be labelled as "essential for the war effort", and that means he would have never been drafted. That generation was not against fulfilling an obligation to the "Greatest Nation" on Earth, and folks felt obligated to the people who went before them, the people who created the Nation and secured our freedoms. We did not take our Nation for granted back then. We (as a Nation) knew how fragile freedoms are, and that each generation must fight to preserve it. My dad, like many other dad's enlisted as soon as possible. Dad washed out at Kelly Field after trying to be a fighter pilot...and was sent to OCS at Ft Benning, Ga...and earned his commission. He went on to land on Omaha Beach as a young Lt with the 116th RCT of the 29th I.D. Surviving the war, he then went to Korea as a Regimental S2 officer in the 45th ID. He was on Pork Chop, White Horse, and "Old Baldy". For my generation...I too enlisted right out of college, became a Ranger, and served a stint with the 2/503rd in Vietnam. I (like many others on these forums) am a true minority. I am a veteran. Pearl Harbor is not forgotten.
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