john cena

My dad worked with a hmong who was in Vietnam with his family during the war.
He had to carry a DP-28 in the rice paddies.
Had scars from bullets and everything.
Fuck, he watched a bull get blown up by a landmine not too far from him.

Well since its people we actually met in person I guess it'd be my grandma (I guess she's kinda a veteran?).

16 year old Hessen girl during WW2, got strafed by a spitfire, learned how to shoot a panzerfaust, survived countless air raids, among other things.

A cute story she told me was her neighbor was in the DAK, and on leave he managed to smuggle an African sea turtle all the way back into Germany and gave it to her as a pet. They drilled a little hole on the brim of its shell and put a rope through it as a leash. While the other kids in the neighborhood had kittens and puppies my grandma walked a sea turtle on a rope.

Gunnery Sergeant Dougherty
JROTC instructor of mine. Taught us how to break into doors with knives, kneed a kid in a balls because he shit talked the marines, broke every bone in his body but still tough as nails. Some confirmed kills too.

I met a wild weasel pilot.
Dude was awesome.

>>9859937
my local laundromat actually has two vietnam vets working there, they were on the side that won

Met Col Danny McKnight at an Airshit event at Ft Knox (my duty station). One of the most humble and polite dudes I've ever met in my life.

My Great Grandmother
she was supposedly the first American Woman to set foot on Japan after WWII ended

I knew a pretty cool one awhile back when I lived in Texas. He got his legs hurt really bad in the Pacific, but he still managed to take a lot of Japs with him. 50 kills, he said he got. He was married when I met him, had a new kid too. Pretty fertile old man.

Yep, I'll never forget Cotton Hill.

I used to work with a guy who was a Combat Engineer in Patton's Third. Since I was an enlisted man myself, he and I got along well. He told me a story about some dudes they'd captured while they were traipsing through occupied France. One of them spoke perfect English. Turns out the dude was an American who "returned to the fatherland to heed the call" or some bullshit. He told my buddy's Platoon Leader that there was a village up ahead where they could get fresh water and bread. My buddy's PL sent a 4 man team to scout out ahead. Turns out it was a trap, and only one of those men made it back. They executed those prisoners and radioed the enemy's position back to the artillery. My buddy kept one of their P38s, and carried it for the rest of his tour.

a cousin of mine was a marine in Vietnam

never spoke a word about it until i was around 10 when he gave me his jacket and told a few stories

My grandfather was in the 32nd during WW2.

Had to bury the dead with a bulldozer. Sometimes he had to bury living Japs when they started shooting at him, and he shot a few stragglers with his 1911 when they transported the dead in the truck.

He also pissed off his CO when he was transferred to another division - He got his red arrows ripped off because he refused to do so himself. He ended up being switched back to the 32nd, though.

I went on a tour of a WW2 American submarine. The former captain of the submarine was sitting in the galley and I talked to him for about 30 minutes. He was a really cool guy who had some crazy stories, I never really appreciated how crazy submarine warfare is before I talked to him.

>>9859983

>>9860047
>you will never own a 1967 Gran Torino

I talked to one of the last remaining survivors of the bataan death march. He told us about how his friend died on the last day at prison camp when the allies were dropping food for them, and a 55 gallon drum of water didn't deploy its chute and fell right on him.

I meant this old Marine sniper once. He cam to my home town on vacation and his wallet was stolen. So I let him sleep under my house for a week or two. But he told me that he was the sniper ready to put a bullet in Sadams head during the hanging in case something went wrong and he got free. Don't know if he was telling the truth or not. But he was a badass mother fucker.

>>9859983
King of the Hill
>>9859990
Band of Brothers


I hate you /k/. I've never had a chance to meet a veteran who wasn't a fucked up nam vet. I'm so pathetic to the point where if I'm driving behind one of those WWII vets with the sticker I feel honored.

>>9860072

I am Filipino, and in all honesty, my Grandfather.

>At 15, Unrepentant communist, even when it was outlawed during the 30's here
>Second World War, Enlisted, but due to age, was always in the rear.
>Bataan fell at '42, ran away and hid with fellow communists.
>Communist guerilla movement emerges, and they allow my Grandad (now 18) to fight
>Raids, raids everywhere
>Tortured a Captured Jap soldier once. They did not kill him, but Grandpa regretted it since the Jap soldier was as very young.
>War ends
>Participates in many of the Communist Uprisings in the North.
>Captured in 55' by the government, pardoned eventually.

He admits he joined the rebellion because 1) No jobs after the war 2) He doesnt enjoy saying it but he said "it was rather exciting."

Met a dude living in Costa Rica who grew up Italy under Mussolini, and moved to the states when he was about 10. He got drafted during Vietnam, said he was a tunnel rat. Had some gnarly stories. Real charmer too, had a Tico wife like thirty years younger than him and took her son under his wing.

Oh yeah, and when he got back to the states he was in a biker gang, went by the name "Kicker". He's got boots he doesn't want the cops to find.

I had lunch with Jack Aeby who took the first photo of the trinity nuclear bomb blast.He was exposed way past the legal dose of radiation and had no long term effect from it.

A friend of mine's dad was in Desert Storm, and he was stabbed in the bicep while going through a tunnel. He said that the next thing he knew the guy's face exploded and he was "damn near deaf" in his right ear. The guy behind him had a shotgun ready.
Came back to teach History in the states. Best damn teacher I had. Talked about shooting turtles with an M1 carbine and played Styx in class. Fuck he's a cool guy.
One guy my father used to work with was friends with the guy I was just talking about. He's got a shitload of guns and he actually helped me get my '52 Tula SKS. He's nuts. Hilarious, but nuts. Told me how him and one of his buddies were either doing combat drills, or they were actually pinned behind a wall, (I don't remember), and the buddy pitched a grenade over. About fifteen seconds later, he bitched out the guy who pitched the grenade because he forgot to pull the pin.

I also used to play paintball with a Korean vet. Now, he was the craziest of them all. His name was Sergent Major. He wore blue camo, and had a custom paintball gun. It was bright-ass blue and was named the Blue Gremlin. It had his wife's name engraved on the back. It was beautiful. He could talk the ears off a goat, though. He was at every scenario that I've played at, and he doesn't even live anywhere close to Georgia. I think he's from New England in some area.

Met this great gentleman in the pic.

Also met a vet who served as a reccy and tank commander for the UN.

>>9860080
Nope. Faggot.

>>9860130

Throwing the grenade and forgetting to pull the pin is better than pulling the pin and forgetting to throw the grenade.

Coolest vet I've met is myself, 2 Afghanistan tours. I'm kind of a big deal.

>>9860130
And my Great-Uncle was a paratrooper in Vietnam,
but he never talks about it. He's deaf as fuck and has a bitching over-arm throw.
My guess: Grenaaaades.

Well back in high school my sgm in jrotc was really awesome he was a vietnam vet who had been through some shit he had quite a few storys but would never talk about killing or anything like that, and he also set up probably my favorite. when I got to be part of the honor guard, that got to honor the last few tuskegee airman at an award ceremony at the tacoma dome. Those were some really cool guys, and they really appreciated what we did for them and told us so quite a few times even though we were like no thank you, they were very humble men. I would not have minded taken the skies with those guys. Only p

I met a Navajo code talker once. He was one of about 10 still alive at the time.

>>9860291
Sorry about the damn only p part the captcha messed me all up.

My grandpa served in the Waffen-SS.
Was a hauptsturmführer . He would often send letters home how they were holding off the russians with minimum casualites . This one time he sent us a letter explaining the battle for Narva bridgehead and how the russian casualties were about 1000 in one assault , and their casualties were about 50. He died on 3rd of August , 1944 while attempting to destroy a third russian tank ( He destroyed two before with panzerfausts)

Coolest I've met is some Mexican dude who was a green beret in Vietnam, he teared up when he was telling me his story. He told me that he bayoneted two enemies lying in the bush.... he also shot a few people, interesting guy.

Tom Malarkey

>>9860351
Only good kraut is a dead kraut.

>>9860080
Funny thing about those movies and shows and shit like that, they often get the stories from real life.

>>9860363
Respect the dead , please. I never got the chance to meet him.

>>9860385
but he was a fascist pig.

>>9860385
Probably never got to meet him because he got some 7.62×54mmR to the torso.

Dads banker was a verteran of vietnam, flew medical choppers.

VC filled hit leg from hip to ankle with lead

>>9860398
Its easy for you to say if you dont know the history.

Met an NVA officer once, living next to my friend who works at Boeing (he moved to America because he was persecuted.) This is what he said about America:
>Every day I was bombed. Sometimes I saw Americans, and I was happy because being close meant they could not bomb. Killing them was not hard, but then you had to run fast because now they knew your position and every plane would come down and strafe you.

He was right next door to the company that worked so hard to bomb him. I think he was doing it to spite them.

>>9860418
Oh okay. So he wasn't a fanatic fascist/militarist who took a personal oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler if you place everything IN CONTEXT. Gotcha.

>>9860418
>My grandpa served in the Waffen-SS.

That's all I need to know baby.

>>9860409

>>9860432
No he wasnt a fanatic , He wasnt even a german . He was an estonian who served in the volunteer SS and in Wehrmacht a year before. The reason to that is that he wanted to avenge for the war crimes committed by soviets on estonian soil.

My great-great-grandfather joined the SS when he was around 50 years old. Literally everyone else in his family had been shot for treason, so he bullshitted his way into the 1st SS and surrendered to the first guy he saw. No blood tattoo so he just took a boat to America.

>>9860469
>surrendered to the first guy he saw

French I presume?

>implying the Germans were the bad guys...

guess what?

the bad guys won that war.

>>9860469
Fucking illegal Mexicans.

>>9860481

>>9860481

>>9860481
History is written by the victors, son.

>>9860409
It was reported he died from a tank shell shot by a russian light tank.

>>9859957
i fucking loled and choked on a french fry

>>9860481

Probably the most /k/ommando man I've ever met, was a man by the name of Richard. He was in Vietnam, runs a military surplus these days, used to run a pizza/ice cream place alongside it, but gave that up a while back. My buddy and I used to go over and hang out with him, listening to his colorful stories of life in Vietnam.

He told us one about how he and his squad found a tunnel one day that passed under a hill and came out on the other side. They set a few guys on one end with a flamethrower and a few guards, and had everyone else get on the other end, forming a semicircle around the exit. They had the flamethrower guy smoke the tunnel out, and as the men, women and children of the tunnel rushed out of the other side to escape the encroaching smoke and fire, they were cut down with automatic fire and the occasional grenade. The squad members were laughing and having fun the whole time. It fucked him up pretty bad he said, but he always shrugged it off and said "You did what you had to, and you can't live if you let it haunt ya."

He had a few more about friends that were hurt, and a couple stories about how everybody was fucked up on drugs 24/7, and how it was the only way they could handle the constant stress. It was a lot of fun and very sobering listening to the stories of such a unique war in a unique era.

wallpaper related

>>9860130
Does he play at Skirmish by chance?

Grandad on the German side was in the 5th SS Wiking, and my grandad on the Norwegian side was Milorg.

I bet they had fun together at family meetings after the war.

I'd have to say my father. He served as a US Marine on active duty from 1966-1972. He has never been to Vietnam, however he has been to both Laos and Cambodia. He served as a recon marine who led 4 man recon teams throughout southeast asia. They worked closely with the cia, the hmong, the montagnard people.They mainly looked for POWs and tracked "concealed" enemy positions.

He's told me stories about some of the crazy ass motherfuckers in the recon platoon, like other recon teams that operated in a similar fashion to his. He told me that there was this one team that had a member who had a battle hatchet with knotches on the handle from all the gooks he killed while they were taking shits...lol

Some of the montagnard people used some pretty wicked cross bows that they nailed NVA gooks to trees with.

He also has told about the atrocities that the communists did to the hmong, and motagnard people. Some pretty fucked up shit...

Both of my great uncles on my dads side fought in the Pacific in WW2. Theyre dead now, and were pretty old when I knew them. My great uncle Hank was responsible for teaching my dad to hunt, since my grandfather died when my father was an infant, so in a roundabout way, responsible for me learning to hunt and shoot.

Great Uncle Hank on pheasant hunting:
One day they were pheasant hunting when my dad was a child, my dad asked him how he shot pheasants so well, Hank replied, "Theyve all got slant eyes"

Great Uncle Hank on television shopping:
GUHank is shopping for a TV at the local appliance store. Finds tv he likes. Says "Toshiba" on it. Tells sales man "That sounds like a Jap name"...Dies with old RCA still in living room.

Great Uncle Hank on fixing bayonets:
"You know, I never really used my bayonet, the Garand stock worked just as good"

All in all Hank was actually pretty fucked up from it all, got real jumpy if you shot without him paying attention, fucking hated japs and anything with "slant eyes" until the day he died but was one pretty hardcore motherfucker, ended up coming home starting a family and retiring a small town firefighter. His brother Paul ended up getting malaria at Guadalcanal and got to go home, he also passed away before Hank and I didnt get to know him so well.

I hope you have enjoyed the meager stories I have, sorry for any typos.

An old man who was a tailgunner in (I believe) a B-24 during WW2.

He shot the shit out of lots of germans and flew numerous missions over europe. He owned this bait shop in revere massachusetts and I stopped in there with my father when I was 16 or so. When we talked to him he had said he planned on closing the place down weeks before but just kept coming in every day.


He died, about a year later. I didn't find out for quite some time because I only knew him from the few times we had spoken. The only reason we knew he had served was because he had a picture of himself with the rest of the crew on the airfield and we inquired about it.

>>9860632
man that is some hardcore hate

>>9859973
As in black hawk down McKnight ? That's awesome

I met a medal of honor recipient from nam, he came to my school when I was a kid.

I got to personally talk to him at lunch, I gave him some of my peppers. He was seriously the most calm collected bad ass I've ever met. The man crawled out of a burning jeep during an ambush, pulled a couple guys of the the same jeep, got on top of it while it was burning and directed his small amount of men taword the enemy, he then fought and killed almost every single one of the 400 vc with nothing but his bayonete and pistol. The vc ran the fuck away.

I also got a hug, because I told him I aspired to be like him and some day have him shake my hand when I get my medal of honor. ;) dude was cool as hell man. I wish I could have adopted him as my grandpa.

My Grandfather (half Chinese here) fought in the Nationalist Army in China during the Civil War.

He was so mad that Chiang Kai Shek lost he moved to America.

He's still alive, though very old, and he visited China often during the 90's to meet up with friends and family left behind.

Other than this, he introduced me to the Mosin-Nagant.

An old man I interviewed for a project. I won't mention myself as it's cliche. This guy was in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. Artillery and infantry. He said he was in a jungle in WW2, he'd just gotten over there, and he came across a jap in the jungle. They stared at each other for a few minutes and both turned around and ran the other way. He said he wasn't so friendly after that. This man was just so sweet, yet so demented. Talked about lining up the sights on caves and blasting the shit out of them like it was a game. His recurring nightmare and thing he hated most about the wars was killing childrens parents. He said he'd give the kids everything he had when he was in a friendly town.

>>9859937
My grandfathers.

One was a WWII Commando (no idea what he did as he died when I was very young).

One was an Australian specialist during WWII, he was a water scout and on two separate occasions eliminated Japanese patrols, whilst being injured.

I also have a picture of him with a flame thrower, no idea where it was taken, but it's him on a beach, using a fucking flamethrower.

My great uncle. He is 92 and lives in Minnesota. Probably going to die soon.

He personally pulled the handle to fire the first mortar round in all of Italy when the U.S. went over there to fight during WW2.
He recently went to an awards ceremony and got to shake a bunch of generals hands and shit.


Good old man, he gave me $20.

>>9860130
hand to hand in the 100 hour war? Elaborate

Leo Major in 2007, one year before his death

My granddad was a Lieutenant Colonel of the first prototype 21st Aviation Engineers in WWII. He built airstrips in Tunisia and Italy.

He was also in charge of the ONLY ice making plant in the ENTIRETY of North Africa. He had power.

My father's and my role model. Also, my other grandfather fought at Omaha. He died of lung cancer, which was horrible, but he got the Bronze Star.

I've also met a Navy SEAL who was tough as fuck, and a police instructor, who's my martial arts instructor. They're friends. I get pummeled everytime I go to practice.

>>9861017
If you guys want to hear any stories here's one.

The engineers were camped out near some AA fields, and the Germans were flying Heinkels over em. So the AA guns started firing, and making tons of noise. However, the engineers didn't know about the AA field, and everyone thought they were getting bombed.

They made some foxholes earlier, for this very occasion, so they all woke up and the camp was in chaos to get to their foxholes. My grandpa personally observed his first lieutenant run out of his tent, stark naked, and trip into a foxhole. He still gets a good laugh out of that.

I had a great uncle who drove a DUWK on D-Day, never met the guy but I've heard when he talked about it he said that the water was red.
I have another uncle who told me how med evac pilots wouldn't let people bring guns on their helicopters.

Quite a few actually.
But the coolest... my grandpa, who passed a few weeks ago. He was in the air force right after the Korean war. Never saw any action but. Had funny stories of shenanigans while there. After he got out of the air force he began his life in country music. For over 30 years he sang across the country. Got to meet and be friends with some amazing people, Buck Owens, Ray Price, was good friends with Johnny Cash before he became famous, Darrell McCall, Bob Coleman, Faron Young, and George Jones to name a few. Performed a few times even with Johnny Cash and Ray Price. He was on the “Who’s Who in country music 1965 edition”. Made it on the “Billboard Magazine” for his song “Friday Night Fights” in May of 1966. My grandpa was a manly man. Could fix anything you gave him, to the point that he had a home repair business, he did that until he was 70. He never had a dull moment in his life. Every day and night he was smiling and laughing even the day before his death. The morning before he passed, I was visiting him and my grandma, he picked up his guitar and tried to play, but couldn’t because of arthritis in his hands. So he looked at me and said. “well… how about that? Haha.” got up, went to the garage and put on his records instead. We listened to his music while sitting in his 59’ Oldsmobile. The last things he did in his life were the two he loved most. His car and his music.
Love you grandpa Chuck.
1/23/31 --- 9/10/11
;_;

granddad was an army mechanic in ww2, never talked about it with me (i was 11-ish when he died) but had the purple heart tag for his '77 chevy luv truck :(

My buddy fought with PPCLI during the height of the Canadian deployment to Afghanistan. Went back to Edmonton for a week, then came home to BC, went from his home right to the airport then to Thailand for a year, blew through mountains of cocaine, heroin, and always jokes about killing a hooker by accident... He was arrested, and pardoned when he got home for smashing up a dudes van who he thought was following him, then got busted for a couple months ago in Alberta for running a grow house that got its door kicked down. Haven't heard from him since, think he may have shot at the cops. My fav story is him talking about the Afghans mixing poppy milk with dip, he basically would be stoned 24/7 on watch.

Theres a video of him on youtube, PPCLI ambush or something...

Grandpa.

Bombardier in the army air corps 43-45, 2nd lieutennant. Flew 43 missions over Italy and Austria, part of the same unit based in Corsica that Catch-22 was written about. Flew in B-25s up in the nose. Never ran into fighters, but always managed to catch flak, ending up with 4 purple hearts by war's end. Told me all about the war when I was growing up.

God I miss him

My grandfather. He was a marine in the Korean War. The most memorable story of his was one time he went ahead of tanks and used a stick or a cane to check for landmines.

>>9860581
Probably, from what I know, he plays all over the east coast. He comes down to Ludowici for the scenarios, and I usually catch him at Free Finale. I haven't been the past year, so it's been a while. He's hard to miss, though.

>>9859990
>an American who "returned to the fatherland to heed the call" or some bullshit.

I've heard this somewhere before.

>>9860053
it's a 1972 Gran Torino.

My uncle was in the 82nd Airborne in Desert Storm and got his Ranger tab.

I met a vet at a bus stop once, he was visiting an old sweet-heart. Funny guy, don't think he was too bright, but was in Vietnam and saved a bunch of his buddies who walked into an ambush right after it stopped raining one day.

He lost a buddy that day, and I don't remember too well, but I think his Lieutenant also got wounded in the fight.

Hands down my uncle.

served in the SAS during the malayan emergency. they got parachuted into the back o' beyond armed mainly with just shotguns. mentioned how their boots simply just rotted off their feet in the jungle humidity. also mentioned that a lot of the communists they killed were just little kids- 15-16ish.

I work in a VA medical center and often wonder how many of the older guys that come in have crazy stories that they've never told anyone.

The most hardcore one I've met and talked with personally would be my own great-uncle, guy's 88 or 89 now and basically went through hell and back in WW2 (US infantry). My details are fuzzy as I last talked to him about all this some time ago, but I have a full two-hour interview I did with him on his time in Europe. He basically landed in Italy, was sent north toward central Europe, and his entire column was ambushed while crossing a river by the Germans. He was captured because he was manning one of their few machine guns and refused to leave his position, spraying bullets all over the bridge while the rest of his men got away. He and some six others, including his platoon leader, were taken as POWs and marched north. He, his lieutenant, and one other guy somehow escaped their guards, stole a rowboat, and sailed that fucker north trying to hook up with their own lines. They eventually linked up with allied forces just in time for a major offensive, during which he was shot in the leg and nearly lost his foot. They were only able to save it by treating him with penicillin, which at the time was still "experimental" according to his nurses.

I'm a veteran myself and saw my fair share of shit, but this guy just makes me feel pathetic in comparison. I'd love to talk to him more and get some more actual details that I missed the first time around, but he's very hesitant to discuss it with anyone.

Great uncle ran away at 16, lied about his age and enlisted in the Army and was a sniper's assistant (like an apprenticeship sort of thing) during the last year of WWI. Came back, went to college, ended up in the OSS during WWII. After that he was in the CIA until he retired. Dude was 103 when he died, and pretty much up until the end, he still played golf every week and refused to use a cane or wheelchair.

Grandpa did the same thing pretty much, joined the Army at 16, went into the 101st, was in Vietnam. Got into SF before it was officially SF and was in MACVSOG for the duration of the war. Decorated as hell, got nominated for the MoH multiple times, if anyone cares enough I can try and find a picture of him. You might be able to find something about him, he's been mentioned in a lot of books. He was good friends with Col. Howard and a bunch of other SF legends. (CSM Glendon Sidwell if you can find anything on him)

a friend of my grandmother's was a Hurricane pilot in the Battle of Britain. He scored a famous victory when he was chasing a Bf109 and ran out of ammo, so he used his wingtip to destroy the Messerschmidt's tail. The tactic became known as "Mackenzie's Knock".
He died a couple of years ago, he got a Hurricane flypast at his funeral.

>>9861770
I met the same fuck, said he owned some shrimp dragging operation... I asked him what weight doors he used for his long-ducks, and net break. He gave me a blank stare... I don't think the guy was a real fishermen/draggman...

>>9861770

Great uncle ran away at 16, lied about his age and enlisted in the Army and was a sniper's assistant (like an apprenticeship sort of thing) during the last year of WWI. Came back, went to college, ended up in the OSS during WWII. After that he was in the CIA until he retired. Dude was 103 when he died, and pretty much up until the end, he still played golf every week and refused to use a cane or wheelchair.

Grandpa did the same thing pretty much, joined the Army at 16, went into the 101st, was in Vietnam. Got into SF before it was officially SF and was in MACVSOG for the duration of the war. Decorated as hell, got nominated for the MoH multiple times, 6 purple hearts, multiple bronze stars, and a silver star, etc. If anyone cares enough I can try and find a picture of him. You might be able to find something about him, he's been mentioned in a lot of books. He was good friends with Col. Howard and a bunch of other SF legends. (CSM Glendon Sidwell if you can find anything on him)

>>9861278
Yeah, you did. Apparently, it was kinda common. And made its way into Band of Brothers.

So you're either calling me a liar, or you're calling him a liar. He didn't strike me as the type to make that shit up, but I can't prove it was true. That's the story he told me.

>>9862220
I don't see why anyone would lie about such a thing, or think it was untrue/uncommon, Before the war really kicked off I think there were around 200,000 German-Americans living in the U.S.

Col. Paul Longgrear, 5th SF in Vietnam, he told me a story about snakes "fornificating"

Col. Danny McKnight, from the battle of Mogadishu

Command Sargent Major Womack, who is a Tac Officer at VFMAC where i'm at right now

quite a few badasses are here right now

>>9860351

don't mind the failed commies and that atrocious k ike phill ossiferz...

SS volunteers wrote glorious pages of history

>>9860702

I knew a man in my youth, one of my mother's beekeeping friends. He lost a leg on Iwo Jima. Nobody ever blamed him for hating the Japs, that's for damn sure.

My grandmother's brother (uncle once removed?) was on a destroyer in the Pacific. He helped steal a welder right off the dock (wearing the Master Chief's hat, he ordered the sailor operating the crane to load it on the destroyer, and they sailed away before anybody figured out wtf was up,) and later that welder saved them when they took a nasty hole in the side.

He described the first downed kamakazie pilot they tried to pull out of the water - he pulled a knife and went after the crew, so they kicked his ass and threw him in the brig. A few days later, they shot down another kamakazie plane, the pilot ditched, and just like the first one had, he floated in the water, waving his arms, 'help me, help me.'

Captain gets on the deck intercom and says "SOMEBODY HELP THAT SONOFABITCH."

So they helped him. With a twin-50 mount.

>>9862237
Including the dude who told me the story, funnily enough. He's a Jew who left Germany before shit got rough only to be sent back to fight.

He also told me about how his unit stuck along side a black transportation unit for at least a short while during, if I recall correctly, the Battle of the Bulge. Some of the dudes were hard-chargin' racists, but when the food was running low, and the black unit was cooking up chow, most of them caved and ate with the other unit. A few refused and went hungry. My buddy was no fool. He went and ate.

And supposedly his company got chewed out by Patton himself once for looking like shit. I guess their uniforms were too dirty.

>>9862285

Hell, at least one GERMAN got fed up and walked right into a GI chow line in the Battle of the Bulge. Took a plate and everything, and he wouldn't have been noticed at all had he not turned around and asked the guy behind him (in perfect English) how the Red Sox were doing.

>>9862297
... that's probably the funniest thing I've heard all day. Please tell me there's more to this story.

my maternal grandfather fought against the italians back in 40. Nearly captured. Fought as a partisan then in the Greek Civil war.

Once all that was over, he became mayor of his town.

Then he moved to the US and built Harley- Davidson motorcycles. When he died, they sent him a huge flower arrangement

My grandfather and his brother on my fathers side both served in ww2, in the pacific and eastern front respectively. Uncle got a purple heart when he blew up a tank with a grenade and got tagged with shrapnel, he hasn't walked since 1943, grandfather was a combat engineer, supposedly he was on the beaches at iwo jima, uncertain though. At his funeral 3 old ass vets came and told my family my grandfather killed 5 Japs in hand to hand combat when they rushed their emplacement at night, he showed us some pictures of them next to like 200 dead bodies piled up but he said that was in the phillipines. Another uncle of mine supposedly got purple heart at Guadal canal but he speaks very broken English and it's hard to get much out of him. My best friends father was in one of the cities during the tet offensive, they were at a disco according to him and a mortar blew him and his squad mates off their feet, he doesn't talk too much about it but from what I gather he killed a fair amount of them with an m60. His son showed me some pics of him in like a swamp with his buddy standing over a vc sniper missing half his face, he also said that guy in the picture got blown apart maybe 15 minutes after they took the picture when he stepped on a land mine.

>>9862304

Don't know; but it's a famous anecdote. You should be able to find more info if you research, I wager.

My grandpa fought in Indochina, in Dien Bien Phu, he took a bullet and a little shrapnel in his leg. He was taken prisonner, and escaped. Then, he fought in Algeria. Shit he saw during the war fucked him up pretty bad, he became alcoholic, and died because of it.

My other grandpa fought in Algeria too.

My great grandpa fought in WWI aswell, but I don't know much about him.

>>9862353

Greekfags represent. My father talked with a guy he met through work who'd been a Greek partisan; he talked about how they would eat: "We'd wait till the Italians made camp and set their spaghetti pots on the fire, then charge in whooping and screaming, fire a few rounds, throw a grenade or two, and steal their pots right off the fire and run like hell with 'em."

>>9862415
hahaha yea. How did we beat the italians? Steal their food.

The most interesting WW2 vet I ever met was a guy I ran into in Aptos. Me and my mom were walking the dog along the beach. His great grand-daughter ran up to pet the dog and after a moment I resumed a conversation I was having in Russian with my mother. The WW2 vet (I can't recall his name) overhears us and says "Spreken ze deutsch?" which isn't the first time we've had someone confuse Russian for German.
Turns out he served in the European theater, one of his duties was that of a translator since he knew German fluently at the time. The one story he told is us is that he was one of the Americans who met Russian troops outside Berlin. After getting drunk as fuck he hopped on a train that he thought was going west. Realizing his mistake the next day he had to jump off and spend a week hiking across Soviet-occupied Germany back to his side.

My godfather escaped from Auschwitz 3 times but got caught. 4th time was the charm. Joined the French resistance and "did stuff" - he never elaborated what exactly.

I never spoke to a veteran, but I did have a conversation with a George Sutton who was 94 at the time I think, this was two years ago. Last I heard, he was sent off to St.John's, hopefully he's alright. Had a glass of whiskey with him even though I was only 17 or 18. He spoke of working in forestry back in the day, how he started working very hard at a very young age, how he volunteered to fight in WWII but they didn't accept him because they needed to keep some men in town. Tough old man though, went for a walk every day. He was kinda sorta dating my 84 year old nan at the time lol Good guy, had a few laughs and a few very interesting conversations. He's been around since WWI! My nan (grandmother) passed away last summer, and I expect George Sutton has passed on as well unfortunately. I guess that was the closest I ever came to having a conversation with a grandfather since both of mine passed away when I was a mere child.

I just remembered, I did meet a vietnam vet once, he was a bus driver. Not as interesting a conversation as I had with George. Wish I had military history in my family, but what can ya do? Wait til the U.S attacks Pakistan then gets China and Russia involved, then there'll be A LOT of new veterans. It'll probably end up being a NATO vs. Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Pakistan, Libya, etc. WWIII instead of the Allies vs Axis of WWII. As for the veterans of these modern wars of the past decade, I think this is the forgotten veterans 2.0. Just like Korea. These wars are just a foreshadowing of the third World War, and I don't think NATO will come out on top like the Allies of the last two world wars.

P.S. coffee good

My grandfather.

He and his wife survived being strafed by P-38s in a park.

He also survived his house being hit with an incendiary bomb from a B-17 raid. AND survived being on the top floor of a bunker tower hit by another bomb. He told me he literally felt the bunker depress downwards (like designed) and then spring up.

I think my grandfather is a pretty cool guy, he shells koreans and doesn't afraid of anything.

Good ol' Dad. He was wounded in 'Nam and shipped home after a pretty short deployment. He almost lost his hand to a morter and caught malaria in the field hospital.

>>9862481

>>9862452

Great grandfather wasn't so fortunate, he died in Auschwitz when he fell out of a guard tower.

I met Frank Perconte in high school, one of the guys portreyed in Band of Brothers

>>9859980
Your great grandma was Jackie Cochran?!
Pics or it didn't happen.

>>9862493
That's crazy. Mine died after some asshole fell on him from a guard tower.

>>9862545

not funny man.

my great grandfather was an actual inmate. He died when he slipped on a patch of ice while dragging 2 corpses to the incinerators

Alright fellas, this guy has to be the most /k/-approved veteran of all time. Fast forward to about 1:15 and watch 'til about the 2:00 mark.
"Curled 'em up like bacon." LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkUzu6YA_U&feature=related

>pic related

Guy who fought at El Alamein another who was a tank commander in Burma at 19 years of age. Got shouted at by a Para rag RSM who was a Falklands veteran.

>>9862570
Mine was executed after being caught looting 3 corpses

>>9862452
>caught escaping from death camp
>not shot out of hand
>Nope.avi

Ian Fraser V.C.

Commanded an X-craft to sink a Jap cruiser, bagging him and his diver a Victoria Cross.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Edward_Fraser#Second_World_War

A doctor my mum worked with lived in his street, and my grandfather was a submariner so we were invited to his house one evening and I gave him a mini-interview (I was maybe 10 years old at the time. He died only a few years ago.

>>9864518

Picture relevant.

>>9864518

But to be honest my own grandfather is the way coolest. The only here I'm likely to have. Ran the engine room on mostly T-class subs in the atlantic, arcticm mediterrenean and pacific. His sub sank U-589 when it was a Monsun boat 50 minutes from Penang after a six-month voyage from Marviken in Norway (that's gonna sting).

>>9864547
*hero I'm likely to have.

Howard Wasdin, my friend's uncle. He was with SEAL team 6 back in the day. Doesn't get that much more operator than that.

>>9864530
Fucking Nails! For a navy bloke

My dad fired heavy mortars at the british until he ran out of ammo during the Falklands/Malvinas.

>>9864572

An amazing mission. Fraser told me he could see Japs leaning over the side of the ship through the periscope as he was approaching,

>>9864684
Awesome...

My Uncle was stationed in fucking somalia for Operation Gothic Serpant (Black hawk down).

No he wasnt a ranger... He was a radar operator on a supply ship...

Although he did tak bud/s training, then became a cop.

I would recommend this video -- Its Jack McNiece, the leader of the Filthy 13 (the inspiration for the Dirty Dozen).

These were 13 Path Finders in WW2.. Their expected casualty rate was as high as 90%.. Jack, the man in the video below, Made an unbelievable total of 4 combat jumps. (including normandy & Market Garden).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwSpB0LNgLs