Met a Hero Today

[Bzcraig]

I was at the VA Hospital today for a Dr visit and got to shake the hand of a 91 year old gentleman who entered the European Theater 6 June 1944 at Normandy. He was wearing a garrison cap I was unfamiliar with. When I asked about it he explained it is for those who are members of the Legion of Valor. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. I was humbled and what an honor that was!

[MtGun44]

Not something earned gratuitously on June 6 1944 at Normandy.
As the saying goes "uncommon valor was a common virtue. . ." to get
noticed that day took some serious heroics, being heroic was pretty
much the order of the day.

You should try to find the citation, he would likely minimize what he
did.

[oscarflytyer]

Lucky SOB, you!

[pworley1]

I have an older neighbor that I new was in the war. My dad told me that they were going through training about the same time. Never new what all he had done but a few years ago he was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal by a representative of the French government. We live among heroes and never know it.

[GhostHawk]

The one's I've had the pleasure to meet and talk with or communicate with do not like being called hero's.

They feel guilty enough about living through the hell where so many of their buddy's died.
That includes my own father in law. He got caught in the Chosen perimeter in Korea, spent a wild and crazy night fighting, and he doesn't even want a 21 gun salute at his funeral. Taps is ok, but nothing else.

Guilt hides within each of them.

Honor them, and honor their wishes. Praise them with great praise, unless they object to it.

They have earned our respect.

[oldred]

My father was in the Normandy landing, growing up I knew about that but he never talked about it much and usually just changed the subject whenever it came up. I lost Dad early on when I was younger and I have often regretted not finding out more of the details while he was still with us, all I have now is what Mom has told us and what my Son is just now finding out about his Grandfather. This is really kind of a coincidence since just recently he (my Son) has undertaken to research Dads war records and what he has turned up so far has been somewhat of a surprise, no point in going into long details but it has made us very proud of him and only makes me regret even more that I missed the opportunity to talk to Dad about this.

[Bzcraig]

What I neglected to say was, it was his wife who gave me the details of the hat not him. He didn't talk much at all but he is 91. Though I don't know the wife's age he did marry a much younger woman.

[BrianL]

It is so sad that we are losing them at such a rapid rate.

[merlin101]

It is so sad that we are losing them at such a rapid rate.

Thats nature, what is really sad is so many of the everyday stories that die with them.
I had an uncle that passed away and didn't know till the funeral that he had a Silver Star!
When I was a kid I did yard work for an old man a few houses down after he passed I mentioned the numbers he had tattooed on his forearm to my dad. No one in town knew he survived the WWII camps.
I often wonder what stories he could've told had he wanted to talk.

[LUBEDUDE]

We live among heroes and never know it.

That is so true.

I've tried to teach my kids and even my smart *** buddies to respect these really old folks even when they are rambling on and people are laughing behind their back. I would tell my kids and friends that these men may have given up much fighting for this country. Or, if an old woman, that she may have sacrificed a lot while her man was at war, just as today.

[JB Weld]

When I was stationed at Ft. Stewart (down in GA), I got invited to have supper with a WWII vet. We had a great time visiting. It turns out that he was one of the very early members of the OSS. I wish I had a picture with him. He was a little fella that was still full of life and it was an honor to meet him.

I like to buy these guys meals whenever I can. I try to do it on the sly. Normally I will catch them eating at IHOP (or somewhere like that), and they have their "hat" on. I will buy their supper when I check out and they never know who did it. I write a short note or just ask the waitress to tell them thanks for all they did.

[archmaker]

My grandfather was in the OSS for a while after serving in the 97th bomb group, my parents (his childern) and i did not find out until i was about 16, or about 40 years after he served. He just said that was what he did. Told a few funny stories but nothing really about all he did.

The interesting part was my Grandmother, she said someone would show up at the door ask my grandfather by name and rank, and then he would be gone for months on end, no explanation no letters or phone calls, he would just show up one day and continue on with their life. She did not find out what he did until 5 years after he got out. She stayed with him for over 55 years, even with what I imagine was a rocky start to the marriage.

We have a few stories that give us a hint of the man he was back then and the connections he made. 20 years after his death we are still finding some things out about him (My cousin - Same name as my grandfather - ran into a NASA scientist, about 5 years ago that stated he read the papers my Grandfather authored on why wings came off at high speed, helped him design the space shuttle).

He was always my hero, before I knew he served. He always made this screwed up funny face, to make us kids laugh. I still do it once in while and smile and remember him.

One of these days I will get to spend an eternity with him and hear all the stories.

[jcwit]

I too went to the VA today, the VA in Fort Wayne, IN. Most everyone I met was a hero tho none so Distinguished as the one the OP mentioned.

regarding an Honor Guard at a funeral, to the best of my knowledge there is NO 21 gun salute, I have been a member of our Honor Guard for the past 7 or 8 years now. We normally have 4 or 5 members in the rifle squad. We fire a salvo of 3 rounds, Read further.

Today, a 21-gun salute is rendered on the arrival and departure of the President of the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States); it is fired in concordance with four ruffles and flourishes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffles_and_flourishes), which are immediately followed by "Hail to the Chief (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_to_the_Chief)"—the actual gun salute begins with the first ruffle and flourish, and 'run long' (i.e. the salute concludes after "Hail to the Chief" has ended). A 21-gun salute is also rendered to former U.S. Presidents, foreign Heads of State (or members of a reigning royal family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_family)), as well as to Presidents-elect. In such a ceremony, the national anthem of the visiting dignitary's country is played, following the salute.[



A gun salute is not to be confused with the three-volley salute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-volley_salute) often rendered at military funerals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21-gun_salute

[lightman]

Theres not many of those guys left, and its sad. They did what they were sent to do, came home and got jobs, married and raised families. They don't talk much and a lot of history is dying with them. When I first moved here where I am now, there were a lot of WW2 air crew guys here. Several pilots, bombers, ect. How I would have loved to hear them talk! They did not want to talk and I respected their wishes. My Dad would not talk about Korea! I met a 'Nam vet a while back. I started a conversation with him and was surprised that He talked as much as he did. He carried a M-60, and I really enjoyed hearing him talk about working on it.

Someone else posted something about buying vets meals. I do this too, everytime that I get the chance. If I'm in a restaurant or bar and see a uniform I'll ask the server to bring me their check. I've done this for anywhere from 1 to 8. The 8 kinda surprised me! I'm not rich, just a working man, but I feel very lucky to be able to do this.

[Hardcast416taylor]

My brother came ashore several days after Normady in a light tank (M-3 "Stuart") scout company. He wound up in Patton`s 3rd Armored and was in that mess called the "Bulge". He never talked about those months from Normandy till the ETO was over. He would tell funny antecdotes of things, but that was all. When he passed on in 1995 several remaining men from his old unit attended and told of a few things that happened to my brother. The fact he had 3 tanks shot from under him over that length of time was one thing. The Bastogne episode was where he picked up his Bronze Star, no further details were told. He also had no salute fired over his grave upon his request. I lost my other brother in `03. He was a 1st "Looey" in an artillery/missles company stationed in W. Germany when the USSR invaded Czech. He retired years later as a Lt. Col. and never did say how he earned a Bronze Star either. I lost my son 4 years back to PTSD from the 1st Iraqi sand box. His DD=214 listed he earned 8 medals besides the good conduct one about everybody earned, yet I never saw any of those medals. He didn`t talk about anything that he participated in over there. At his funeral I found out he was a squad leader for an extraction unit for a SEAL team! I`ve known quite a few Heros in my life. I only try to make them proud of the way I am living my life in their memory.Robert

[jcameron996]

My uncle passed away several years ago. He was medically retired from the Navy after 23 years as a Lt. JG. We knew that he had been in Vietnam as an elisted man and had later gone to OCS. A few months ago I found out a few things from my aunt(his sister) that made me wonder. She said that when we had his funeral the funeral director said that the honor guard for his funeral was kind of strange. He said that it was led by an active duty Captain and he had never seen that before. She also said that when his time got short he gave her a name and number to call to get his benefits. She expected then normal goverment run around to settle his affairs, but it was done within the week. I never really knew him that well as when I was growing up he and his family were stationed around the world and lived out of state when he retired. I would have liked to have heard the stories but most from that conflict would never speak of it to anyone.

[aspangler]

My brother earned a Bronze Star, and a post humus Purple Heart in 'Nam. My electronics teacher flew B-29's in China with the Flying Tigers. Uncle was at Chosen in Korea. Grandfather served in Europe during WWII. Many friends and family in the service of our country including me.

[jcwit]

I have helped with a number of funeral details that were ran by active duty service. They were joint actions, Active Duty and Retired/Veterans from the American Legion. These been from all services, no matter whether Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard.

When Active Duty Service shows up they are the ones who always call the manner of the service and commands.

One of the finest was ran by the Air Force and every command and action was down to the tee, it was perfect.

This is not unusual at all.

[LUBEDUDE]

Archmaker- very interesting story.

I find most of these stories interesting.

Like most Vets, my brother would not talk about Nam. It took him 25 yrs to open up just a little bit.

About 20 years ago I became very close friends with a man whom was a Vet. He was one of those few rare people in life that you could truly call a Real Friend, one that you would risk your life for, and vice versa. He explained to me why the Vets don't talk about war and subsequently over the years I was the only one that he would talk to about Nam.