My father in law was in WW2 and he was captured in the Battle of the Bulge. My bride said he would never talk about the war to anyone, but shortly before he died, one night he opened up to me and told me all about what he went through during his service. My bride was in the other room and the next morning she was shocked that he opened up to me about it.
Fireworks scared the heck out of him especially if it caught him off guard. He said some battles they got shelled for 3 straight days and they had to just stay in their foxholes. I can see after living through that, how fireworks might be the last thing you wanted to hear.
His talk lasted all night and it is terrible what they had to go through and a lot of them never had winter clothes and had to use their old ragged socks for gloves. It went on and on.
Another good friend of mine was in Nam and was in many battles and he had lots of medals. He would open up to me at different times about some of the battles. I remember he said his favorite firearm was the pump shotgun. He said many times they were dug in to foxholes and the gooks would slowly crawl in and he said they were quiet. He said he never heard them but would see them crawling. He said they didn't hardly bleed, even when shot with the shotgun. He figured maybe they were doped up.
When he came home he slept with a shotgun and many times he would jump up with the shotgun at any little sound in the house. His bride was scared to death that he might shoot her by accident. He got over it, after a couple years.
If we only knew a small percentage of what those poor souls went through!
Fireworks scared the heck out of him especially if it caught him off guard. He said some battles they got shelled for 3 straight days and they had to just stay in their foxholes. I can see after living through that, how fireworks might be the last thing you wanted to hear.
His talk lasted all night and it is terrible what they had to go through and a lot of them never had winter clothes and had to use their old ragged socks for gloves. It went on and on.
Another good friend of mine was in Nam and was in many battles and he had lots of medals. He would open up to me at different times about some of the battles. I remember he said his favorite firearm was the pump shotgun. He said many times they were dug in to foxholes and the gooks would slowly crawl in and he said they were quiet. He said he never heard them but would see them crawling. He said they didn't hardly bleed, even when shot with the shotgun. He figured maybe they were doped up.
When he came home he slept with a shotgun and many times he would jump up with the shotgun at any little sound in the house. His bride was scared to death that he might shoot her by accident. He got over it, after a couple years.
If we only knew a small percentage of what those poor souls went through!
