20mm-thanks for the thanks,too.
Rudel-keep yer head down,mang.By the way,my cousin's son is in Afghanistan now.His name is Aaron Austin.
Shan2-are you a Korean?I'll tell you something for sure-if I had to go fight as a ground pounder,and I could choose the men that were going with me-I'd take ROK's.
The NVA and VC in the Viet Nam War tried to avoid any contact with ROK forces.There's a reason for that...
A while back,I got a book from ebay,about Daddy's unit in WWII.
It is called Black Hawks Over The Danube.
He was in the 86th Inf. Div.,341st Inf. Rgt.
A German sniper barely missed him in a town called Hagen.
The 86th got into the war very late-only had about 6 weeks of combat.They lost 106 killed,if memory serves.They were in an action called The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket.
After the Allied victory in the ETO,the 86th was sent home to prepare for combat in the Pacific.
While en route there,the Japanese surrendered to Gen. MacArthur-who incidentally,is my cousin.
My father stayed in the Army.
He was in Japan,having easy duty and a great old time,when the Korean War started.
6 days later,his fanny was in the mud.
He was so young in WWII-it was bad enough,but didn't shake him up too badly.
Korea was different.
He was convinced he'd never get out of there alive.
When MacArthur made his move at Inchon,their unit made it up to within 18 miles of the border-I think it was Manchuria,need to double-check.MacArthur's biggest mistake was believing that the Chinese would not get involved.
Daddy said that when they got the order to pull out,everyone was quite relieved.Tracers,flares,shell bursts across the night sky.
When he got back to the States,he got out of the Army-which he didn't want to do,but Korea got to him-bad.And they were going to send him back.
He was stationed in Tyler,Texas,and met my mother there.She tells me that for several years afterwards,she would be awoken in the middle of the night,to his thrashing and screaming.
Probably the best of the extremely few things he will talk about,was the time when they got some intel about Chinese forces approaching,with Russian tanks.There was a road on a hill,that the tanks were driving up.Two very brave GI's awaited them,with a bazooka.When the tanks came within range,the shooter fired up the tank in the rear,so the other 2 couldn't back up.Then he fired the lead tank,trapping the second tank in the middle.He destroyed that one,too.
Daddy said they went up to take a look,after daylight came.Tanks still smoldering,bits of flesh and human hair,the stench of violent death on everything.
He also once saw a stretch of road that had a ditch on each side.The Communist forces had executed civilians,and both ditches were filled for about 100 yards.
My father is no war-monger,but he has no use for totalitarianisms,of any kind.
He also says that anyone that would start a war is a raving lunatic.
