Thousand a day WW II vets passing.....

[427 S/O]

Seek em' out and say hello.

FOXNews.com - World War II Veterans Are Dying at Rate of More Than 1,000 a Day, Numbers Dwindling - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

[Cobrabill]

The Collings Foundation - Stow, MA


Here's a good place to do it.

[392cobra]

I go to the "VA" here in North Texas every 6 months for a check up.It seems like in just the last 2 years the number of WW II Vets ,and Korean War Vets as well, passing away has accelerated.

What a great group they are.

[Ron61]

Fred,

They are all getting older and going through all of the stuff they did seems to really snowball as you get older and seem to have less resistance to fight against nerves, and various other things. It is sad, but as fact of life that we have to face. There are only a very few still left around here. I believe I only saw about 6 at the parade last time and there used to be a couple of dozen. Even the Vietnam Veterans are not so many any more as several of them have passed on from some diseases they caught in the jungles over there.

Ron

[Ronbo]

They showed the last surviving vetran of WW1 on the news last night...

While the WWII and Korea vetrans are vanishing their infuance on following generations like myself live on. I never sweat banged-up cars and busted stuff because these people taught me it's just "stuff". Life, health, family, these things matter most.

And most importantly, things could be a lot worse...

So we do what we can and get up the next day and do it again. We pass their wisdom on to all that will listen. Eventually enough will ignore this and another global conflict will arise giving birth to the next generation of self-denied heros.

It's a strange thing how such a terrible event like war creates these fantastic individuals. Like the great fires and floods that cause the earth to renew itself.

[Scott S]

I spent the weekend with a gentleman that survived the invasion of Italy. I thanked him for his service and he said he wished I could have joined him for the "walk".

Funny thing he said was that after he got home in "46" he kind of ambled around a bit for six months before he went back to work and felt now that he may have been a bit fouled up from the "action".

Looking back on it now he wondered why he wasted so much time getting on with his life....

Gotta love that generation!

Scott S

[Ron61]

Scott,

The history channel had man all day marathon yesterday about the marines and as lot of the combat photography was included. After what they went through on the beaches and those islands, I am surprised that anyone who survived could ever get back to a normal life. To me those and all the others like them will always be real heroes and we owe them more than we can ever repay. I believe that Churchill's remarks about the RAF could also be applied to them. He said, "Never have so many owed so much to so few." Very true and appropriate.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

I have not had the pleasure of sitting down with many WWII vets, but I did grow up in a house with a Vietnam vet. It was really hard. I have memories as a young kid where my dad had flashbacks and was back in the jungle. He eventually drowned those away in alcohol, but that came with its own problems. Now he is 59 this year and is in so much pain from the effects of Agent Orange and other stuff. He gets such severe cramps in his legs that they will twist around and look deformed. At times the muscles will rip themselves. It took years for the VA to get around to accepting patients with these symptoms, and now it seems to be too late as none of the treatments are working. With how bad he is, I am afraid he won't be around too much longer, people are surprised at how "young" he is after looking at him.

Knowing what he went through and how it tore him apart mentally and physically, really puts into prospective what vets go through during a time of war. This is why I personally thank service members of all branches, no matter what job they are doing, and why I joined out of high school. I wanted to give something back to those who gave so much and those who gave all.

A bit of self pride, my Step Son informed us last week that he is joining the Air Force. He is 19 about to turn 20 and is finalizing his paperwork before bootcamp. I was very impressed as he scored an 88 on his ASVAB. He is, like most teens, very headstrong, so I think he has a wakeup call coming, but I am always impressed when our young make the decision themselves. We did not know anything about it until after the ASVAB was taken and he needed birthdates and stuff for his paperwork.

[Don]

The CT American Warrior program:

American Warrior "Supporting America and its warriors."

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