OT: Video From 1945

I was only 9 when this was made and started the 7th grade the following month. My mother and my wife's mother both worked at a defense plant making 20mm ammo. Take a look at the cars back then. We had a 1939 Ford. Hal
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Thanks for the video, truly enjoyed that. I liked all the ways they rode in and on them. Lawyers would have a hey day if that happened today.

Wow, thank you for sharing that. I realy enjoyed that.

I was actually 12 years old in 1945. Hal

Please repost the link to the clip "in all familiar places" next week. Prior to Memoerial Day everyone needs to be reminded of what those brave men and women did for the FREE world. We owe a debt we cannot repay. gobble

Hal,

Thanks so much for the video. I was born in 1944, so of course, I have no personal memories of the war. However, I had two older brothers and a brother-in-law who all fought in the Pacific. I grew up with their stories of war-time experiences.

As most boys did in that era, I played army with my friends and we almost single-handedly won the second Second World War in our back yards.

Thanks again,

Tom in TN

You can post it. Here's the link. Hal


http://vimeo.com/5645171

Just think. Likely 99% of those cars and trucks, and 99% of all those people are gone today.

It seems like a whole other world.

I was 6 yrs old when that vidio was made, and remember Dad being gone for several yrs before that. He was a marine in the pacific, gave up his rented farm in 41 to join up, and moved into Jacksonville, so he could go. My older brother and I, would stand and wave at the soldiers, and sailors, going by on the troop trains. we had a lot of sailor hats, and army folding caps! I think they were coming home then.

I was actually 12 and less than 8 nyears later I was in the Army and my brother in the Air Force. Hal

Very good video. I was born in 51 but I did hear a lot of stories and got in on the great patriotism my parent's generation held. Jim

My brother and I both graduated in 1951. We should've got out in 1950, but we caught the 12 grade system. My brother joined the Air Force 3 days after we graduated. I was drafted 18 months later. Just about all boys in my class served in the military. Some made careers in the Army and Air Force. Hal

That sure made me miss my dad. Even though he was RAF and RN Fleet Air Arm, he was one of those same young men that we owe so much to. Truly, the best generation.

Fantastic video!

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thanks for sharing the video E T.
On that day my father was on a destroyer escort off the Japanese coast. They had been through the Battle of Okinawa and a typhoon during the war. While the crew was in good spirits on VJ day, their war was not quite over. The threat of rogue enemy aircraft, ships, and mines caused the captain to issue General Quarters numerous times in the weeks that followed. Among their post war duties were a delivery of gold bar to Korea, and the rescue of a sinking junk loaded with refugees.
It was not until several months of duty after VJ day when their day of celebration came. On that day the captain ordered six naval signal flags to be run up the halyards on each side of the ship. My father"s station through the war was fire control, on the bridge. He controled the 5" gun on the bow. Such duty required him to know well the naval signal flags. The lot of the crew did not know those signals.
As he left the bridge after his watch that day, with the ship steaming hard to the East, nearly every sailor he past on deck asked him, "What"s that say, sir?"
He told each one in turn, "Foxtrot, Romeo, India, Sierra, Charlie, Oscar!" "FRISCO!
A week later they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Days later he was discharged, and was on the train cross country. Although his ticket was punched for Philadelphia, he called my mother from a train station in the midwest to arrange for her to meet him ASAP at the train station in Baltimore. Driving late at night, she met him about 3:00 AM. As per his request, she had in hand a brown bag, in it civilian shoes, socks, pants, and shirt.
They walked to the nearest low priced Baltimore hotel. The night clerk had a silent smirk on his face as he issued a room to a sailor, and a pretty woman. As the story goes, the clerk was surprised to see the couple leaving just five minutes later, except the sailor was now in civies. The great war that had put their lives on hold was over, and their lives and love was to resume as before.
Charlie

My Dad was on Guam in August of 1945 where they had been preparing for the land invasion of Japan until the bombs ended the war, my Mother spent most of the war in Hawaii. My Dad met her in 1943 and remembered her government employee number and tracker her down in D.C. in 1947.

My wife has worked for the Air Force, Army and Navy as a civilian. When I was stationed at Ft Bragg back in the 1950's they wouldn't give her a job so she worked at Sears. Hal