While I am a Vietnam vet who saw some action, watching these first
couple of episodes of the "The War" opened up my eyes even more, to
the hardships that many had gone through. While I'm sure not everyone
was there at Guadacanal, or North Africa, there was a shared pain all
around. I want to say thanks to all of the men and woman who served
either at home or abroad, one more time. I never had the opportunity
to discuss with my dad his experiences (he nearly missed getting on to
the USS Indianapolis, I believe),so if you have a father, uncle,
grandfather, mother, aunt, or cousin who served or was at home during
that time, this is a wonderful series to explore their thoughts and
feelings. I can not fathom the pain and hardships you all experienced.
Again, thanks.
MJ
On Sep 26, 5:19 am, "George" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Lew Hodgett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
>
>
> > The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.
>
> Not if you read even non-revisionist history, though the revisionists
> certainly place greater emphasis on the dissenters and their treatment by
> that icon of liberalism FDR.
Yes, of course, we would have been far better off with a proper
right winger who would have contracted with his favorite corporation
to screw up supplies, construction projects, food commissaries, etc;
put in a blow-hard Defense Secy who would have fired generals who
said they need more troops, then claim that he's giving the (new)
generals what they ask for; tell the population that they can be
patriotic
by going out shopping; sit back while the good ole boy military
hierarchy shafts wounded soldiers and the families of dead ones.
>
> Of course the press wasn't out there being merciless to our allies and
> glossing over our enemies' misconduct. Betting we'd have had people
> listening and eventually, as Dr Goebbels said, the lie would have become the
> truth.
A lesson learned and well-practiced by our very own uber-neocons.
RE: Subject
Tonight's film brought back a lot of memories of my early childhood.
My mother saving bacon grease.
Rinsing out tin cans, removing both ends, then stamping the cans flat
(To this day I rinse out cans before discarding them).
Newspapers were saved, then off to the junk yard.
I saved the foil from chewing gums wrappers.
Must have had a ball about 8"-9" in diameter before I took it to the
junk yard where my joy was crushed when I found out what I thought was
tin foil was actually aluminium foil.
The junk yard guy must have felt sorry for me and gave me a quarter
for my effort.
Ration coupon books for everything, especially gasoline.
Natural rubber came from Asia, which was under the control of the
Japs.
Synthetic rubber was at best, "poor".
You ran on bald tires with inner tubes that had patches on their
patches.
War bond stamp books were sold in the grade schools.
Red stamps were $0.10, Green ones were $0.25.
When a book was full, you got a "War Bond".
There were no new cars.
Our '37 Chevy was litterly held together with #9 baling wire and what
passed for duct tape of the time, by the end of the war.
Remember the 1943 steel pennies.
The copper saved could be turned into casing brass?
Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
I still remember "VE" and "VJ" days.
There was a collective sigh of relief when "VJ" day was announced..
The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.
Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
Lew
on 9/26/2007 2:35 AM Lew Hodgett said the following:
> RE: Subject
>
> Tonight's film brought back a lot of memories of my early childhood.
>
> My mother saving bacon grease.
>
> Rinsing out tin cans, removing both ends, then stamping the cans flat
> (To this day I rinse out cans before discarding them).
>
> Newspapers were saved, then off to the junk yard.
>
> I saved the foil from chewing gums wrappers.
>
> Must have had a ball about 8"-9" in diameter before I took it to the
> junk yard where my joy was crushed when I found out what I thought was
> tin foil was actually aluminium foil.
>
> The junk yard guy must have felt sorry for me and gave me a quarter
> for my effort.
>
> Ration coupon books for everything, especially gasoline.
>
> Natural rubber came from Asia, which was under the control of the
> Japs.
>
> Synthetic rubber was at best, "poor".
>
> You ran on bald tires with inner tubes that had patches on their
> patches.
>
> War bond stamp books were sold in the grade schools.
>
> Red stamps were $0.10, Green ones were $0.25.
>
> When a book was full, you got a "War Bond".
>
> There were no new cars.
>
> Our '37 Chevy was litterly held together with #9 baling wire and what
> passed for duct tape of the time, by the end of the war.
>
> Remember the 1943 steel pennies.
>
> The copper saved could be turned into casing brass?
>
> Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
>
> I still remember "VE" and "VJ" days.
>
> There was a collective sigh of relief when "VJ" day was announced..
>
> The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.
>
> Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
>
> Lew
>
>
>
I was there too. Don't forget the metal bottle caps that we saved, and
the aluminum pots and pans given up, and the steel pennies, and the
blackouts.
I lived in NYC at the time and the fire truck sirens were exchanged for
claxon horns, so as not to confuse fire trucks with air raid sirens.
Also watched tens of airplanes flying overhead off to Europe.
I went to grammar school with lots of kids whose fathers were overseas.
--
Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @
"Lew Hodgett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.
>
Not if you read even non-revisionist history, though the revisionists
certainly place greater emphasis on the dissenters and their treatment by
that icon of liberalism FDR.
Of course the press wasn't out there being merciless to our allies and
glossing over our enemies' misconduct. Betting we'd have had people
listening and eventually, as Dr Goebbels said, the lie would have become the
truth.
dpb wrote:
> Lew Hodgett wrote:
> ...
>
>> Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
> ...
>
>> Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
>
>
> Great recollections, agree w/ all.
>
> However, the US only "got through" in four years owing to sitting
> the
> first two out.
Do you have any idea how tiresome this continuous whining about the
date on which the US started shooting in WWII has become?
Should have annexed the UK while we had an army stationed there.
--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
J. Clarke wrote:
> dpb wrote:
>> Lew Hodgett wrote:
>> ...
>>
>>> Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
>> ...
>>
>>> Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
>>
>> Great recollections, agree w/ all.
>>
>> However, the US only "got through" in four years owing to sitting
>> the
>> first two out.
>
> Do you have any idea how tiresome this continuous whining about the
> date on which the US started shooting in WWII has become?
>
> Should have annexed the UK while we had an army stationed there.
I simply stated a matter of fact that other than lend-lease (which was
not an insubstantial effort in both materiel and lives and was
absolutely critical to the survival of England and a testament to the
joint resolve of FDR and WC) there was no national resolve to actually
participate actively until after Pearl Harbor. Merely a point at which
we actually became active participants was the reason it was over for us
in four years. Having finished reading Churchill's four-volume history
relatively recently, the closeness of the margin of outcome is fresh in
my mind.
Since it appears you seem to have interpreted my comment as coming from
a "whining" Brit, I'll point out I am US and am quite content to have
them retain their sovereignty.
--
Granted that things weren't quite like the history books tell it, there were
dissenters, there were people whose rights were severely abused. People
(the government) were scared and did what they thought they had to do.
Things were different in other countries. Dissent in Germany and you got to
go to a death camp, be the wrong race and you got to go to a death camp,
same for Russia, Italy and a few other places, including occupied areas. I
think they did a good job of it under the conditions that prevailed at the
time. People who were "second" class citizens signed up to fight for the US,
they didn't have to but they wanted to, their families struggled along side
everyone else to keep things going. I think that says a lot about the
country and the people. They did a good job when all was said and done.
Just my biased opinion, but mine.
"dpb" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Lew Hodgett wrote:
> ...
>
>> Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
> ...
>
>> Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
>
>
> Great recollections, agree w/ all.
>
> However, the US only "got through" in four years owing to sitting the
> first two out.
>
> --
On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:19:43 +0000, George wrote:
>
> "Lew Hodgett" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> The country was united, a far cry from what exists today.
>>
>
> Not if you read even non-revisionist history, though the revisionists
> certainly place greater emphasis on the dissenters and their treatment by
> that icon of liberalism FDR.
>
Just remember the winners write the histories :-).
dpb wrote:
> Lew Hodgett wrote:
> ...
>
>> Somehow the country got thru WWII in less than 4 years.
>
> ...
>
>> Yes, it was "The Greatest Generation".
>
>
>
> Great recollections, agree w/ all.
>
> However, the US only "got through" in four years owing to sitting the
> first two out.
>
And how long had WWII been going on before the USA got involved?
And what was the cost, in % of GNP, dollars adjusted to today's values, and not
least in human lives?