[senior citizen]

http://www.173fw.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123277401


Great article for this special day.....Surviving real "Band of Brothers"

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"They depended on each other.....and the world depended on them."

Although above article is from a few years back, I still do know two gentlemen who are alive, one in his late 80's pushing 90 and the other already into his 90's, both of whom served in World War II.

The first fibbed about his age and enlisted at age 17, fought in the Pacific Theatre till the end of the war. His daughter married into our family; we've had some interesting chats about my own Uncle Mike who was also in the South Pacific in the Marianna Islands, serving with the Medics Corps.........

The second gentleman is a cousin of mine, who was in the 10th Mountain Division, fighting in the mountains of Italy........still going strong.

"Band of Brothers", six discs, is an excellent DVD series....as we all know.

Ditto for "THE PACIFIC", six discs,.......equally as riveting.......
Both presentations by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

I have a box of photos, circa WWII, taken in our ancestral village in Italy.......by American G.I.'s at the end of the war. These photos were all found in my grandmother's suitcase upon her death in 1965. She had tons of Godchildren, nephews, etc. who served in WWII. Apparently, they all wore the American Army uniforms, as did my dad's cousin who married a Parisian gal after the war; raising their children in France........now in San Mateo, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, etc. While working on my genealogy research, I was contacted by my cousin in San Mateo. His Dad and mine were cousins.......his dad was the brother of my paternal grandmother. It's amazing how people find each other.

So many sacrifices for a better world and to end the craziness of Hitler and the Japanese....and Mussolini.

I have other cousins in Italy, found via genealogy, again from the same ancestral village........these two, both doctors, recalled their childhood in Naples while the allies (us) were strafing them with bombs......their parents took them up into the mountains to the old ancestral homesteads.......to keep them safe. They survived.
The Italians were so happy to be "liberated" by the G.I.'s and free of Mussolini. My mom always told me how they hung him.

I was born as the European war was ending.....in April 1945....and the Pacific war coming to a close as well.

As a child, my mom would tell me of how everything was rationed here in the U.S. and so much more of those "war years".......

We most definitely owe a debt of gratitude to all of those who served then and also NOW.......plus the years inbetween.

[F16 1UB]

The Honor Flight Network is seeking out WWII veterans to take to their war memorial in DC. It costs them nothing. Please go to the web site for further information. Also if you want to become a Guardian....there's an application there too.



Villages Honor Flight Network