No. of Recommendations: 8
I had a high school teacher ( can't even remember the class name, but sure remember him ) who was in airborne, dropped in the night before the landings. He was in the thick of things, he ended up being in charge when his seniors were killed in the fighting. He made it 2 months or so before he was severely wounded by a German "burp" gun, took him 5 years to recover. He had been a cop prewar, but after the war he went to college to become a teacher. Like the other men I knew who were combat vets, was always very respectful toward him, and a touch scared of him. Got the sense that there was something just below the surface that you didn't want to bring out.
My dad came later, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I was told he had multiple tanks shot out from under him ( he drove the tank ). Each time, the crew got out, walked back toward the Allied lines, and were put into another tank and sent forward as soon as possible. Like your dad, he never spoke of it to me ( although older brothers heard some stories ). His brothers ( my uncles ) were also in the thick of some scary stuff, and they were also reticent to speak of it to any of the kids. 1 uncle was in North Africa when the Germans were kicking the Allies butts. He was in a group that was surrounded and under siege, and they all thought at best they were going to be POW's, or dead. Many survived, and after the war they held annual reunions until maybe 1970 or so, in different spots across the USA. I was too young to ever go, but some of the older cousins got to go.
