old55pete Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 Very good Jim! Coming from a military family and marrying originally into another I have a few who did not make it through and some who by pure luck did. Great Grandfather survived the explosion of the Maine, only to end up shot through the lung at Belleau Wood. He survived that too, but it left him partially paralyzed on one arm My late wife's dad and uncle were there, uncle did not survive. Grandfather on Dad's side was WWI and WWII service in the Navy, and ultimately in the 60s lost his legs to circulation problems from standing watch in the North Atlantic in WWI. Dad survived a Kamikaze attack on one of his Destroyers in WWII. May we always remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country! Geez Bill, And I thought I had a military family, A great grand father in WWI and got his citizenship thru the Liberty program. Maternal grand father was a Marine in WWII and Army in Korea and an adviser in Vietnam, retired as an Sargents Major. My dad and his two brothers in the Korean war and they got their citizenship thru the Liberty program. An older brother, a Marine, lost his life during TET 68 in Kason(spelling?) I was Army, retired as an SFC, three younger brothers, one Air force, one Navy, one Coast Guard. Then there is my oldest daughter that retired from the Army back in March. My wife is the daughter of a retired Army LTC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 26, 2020 Author Share Posted May 26, 2020 Don't laugh - PT109. We were listening to the radio recently and that song came on. So today as we were discussing what to watch we decided on that one. I'm never going to laugh, Gary. My maternal family was captured by the Japanese in Manila and interred at Santo Tomas. My mother used to praise MacArthur and to her dying day wanted to hear the sounds of CAS and the tanks rolling through the gates of the camp. Many brave servicemen gave their lives to re-take the Philippines. Without them I wouldn't even be here. Luders, here in Stamford built quite a few Patrol Boats back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpin Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 I'm never going to laugh, Gary. My maternal family was captured by the Japanese in Manila and interred at Santo Tomas. My mother used to praise MacArthur and to her dying day wanted to hear the sounds of CAS and the tanks rolling through the gates of the camp. Many brave servicemen gave their lives to re-take the Philippines. Without them I wouldn't even be here. Luders, here in Stamford built quite a few Patrol Boats back then. In memory... I read again the other day about John Basilone. Definitely some military families you guys mentioned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 I'm never going to laugh, Gary. My maternal family was captured by the Japanese in Manila and interred at Santo Tomas. My mother used to praise MacArthur and to her dying day wanted to hear the sounds of CAS and the tanks rolling through the gates of the camp. Many brave servicemen gave their lives to re-take the Philippines. Without them I wouldn't even be here. Luders, here in Stamford built quite a few Patrol Boats back then. It was a good movie. Janey isn't sure she had seen it, but I think I had. And, from what I've read, it was reasonably accurate. Luckily 11 of the 13 crew members lived, but 2 died when PT109 was cut in half by the Japanese destroyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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