O/T Band of Brothers/ The Pacific

My son bought me a 14-CD collection for Christmas. The Band of Brothers follows Easy Company through the first parachute infantry regiment from the training until the end of the war. They were in several important campaigns beginning with parachuting in behind enemy lines on D-Day to freeing prisoners in the concentration camps. The shelling in the Ardennes must have been terrifying. I have never watched anything that moved me as much as this series. It's plain to see why they were the greatest generation!

The Pacific is not as moving, except in the portrayal of the islands. What hostile territory.

I spent my tour in Viet Nam sleeping in a bed every night and three hot meals every day. To those who spent their nights ever watchful in the field, thank you so much. I have never had my mettle tested in the face of someone trying to kill me. I don't know how I would have done. I had friends, but never the bond that comes from watching my buddies back.

No disrespect to the European Theater and it's veterans intended, but as a Marine my interest has always been in the Pacific theater. I'd like to see a thorough "Band of Brothers" type thing done on the Marines in the Pacific Theater. There just haven't been that many good Pacific Theater movies done IMO, not recently anyway.

it was always strange to me how so many of that generation came home and went back to work.I have rarely heard stories about my uncles and there experances to them family the farm and day to day living was all that mattered .Bragging was almost a sin.
my dad was the oldest and got defered to stay on the farm grandpa was born in 1865 one uncle fought in france in ww1 as a marine and in ww2 served in the navy yard as a fireman.2nd one got tired of picking corn by hand joined the marines before ww2 and was in the phillipines bataan to corregidor to manchko finnally rescued by the russians 3 rd brother was in the battle of the bulge .I have so few stories the just wanted to come home.i was in daily contact with them on the farm but never a word now they are all gone and just bits and pieces and my memories are left.

I haven't seen "Band of Brothers", but as a Marine I thought "Pacific" was a bit overdone, some of the non-combat scenes overdone for the sake of sensationalism.

Can't remember in "Pacific" if they brought out the fact that John Basilone is the only Medal of Honor recipient ever to return to combat and be killed in action.

I've seen coverage of John Basilone in a TV documentary but do not remember just what series.

Dean

I have not watched any of the movies you spoke of. So I can't give an opinion on them. Just don't want to see any "War" movie.

I can tell you anyone that saw actual combat usually is not impressed by the movie makers take on combat. Remember modern day Hollywood has very few if any combat Veterans that are actors. There are very few that have even served in any branch or station, let alone combat. They are too "smart" for the service now days. They think only the "stupid/poor" people are in the service.

Many of the famous actors during WWII actually volunteered, an actually saw combat. Jimmy Stewart actually stayed in the reserves and retired with after 27 years of service, Stewart retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968. His rank was a Brigadier General. I did not know until I looked it up just now, that he was the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II.


Those men have my respect. I have ZERO respect for most of the modern day famous types. They rarely do anything but run down the military.

There are more Jane Fonda types rather than the Ann Margret type now days.

Ann Margret is one lady/actress that I do hold in high regard. She actually was in theater and even HOT bases while she was in the USO.

"it was always strange to me how so many of that generation came home and went back to work.I have rarely heard stories about my uncles and there experances to them family the farm and day to day living was all that mattered ."

I asked my Dad that years before he passed at age 90. His answer was "we had a true mission and nothing changed from start to finish". The mission was to defeat the enemy. He told me about leaflets dropped out of aircraft ahead of invasions of the islands. Those leaflets told the natives to leave the towns and cities because everything would be destroyed to get the enemy out. If the natives didn't leave they would be killed too. With the Japanese that meant everyone was killed. My Dad still hated Japanese till the day he died. Never trusted any of them.

He said with a defined mission that didn't waver , the support of the folks at home and the country's leaders they new they had a job to do and had a clear conscience afterwards for the most part. When they finished they came home and went to work. He said when a mission is named and it has to keeping changing names it's not a true mission. He said it's a leaders whim and when support starts to fall they just call it something else to keep trying to gain support. My Dad and 2 of my uncles were in the Pacific. They are my heroes. All men of their word, told you once what they were about to do and did it.

That's how one great man told it.

I was stationed in Kaiserslautern Germany in 1970. This town was almost flatened during the war and at that time the effects of the war were still showing. All the trees looked like a tornado had went thru. The builds we used were old barracks from the germans and many of the builds had the corner stones in place yet. I lived n a small town east of there and even today they are still finding bomb that did not go off as it was used as a dumping grounds before the bombers went back to their bases. I have many friends that were raised there and I wish I could get some of the pictures their parents and grand parents took after the war. I a, surprized that the number of our troops killed wasn't higher. They are still finding bombs yet today. When I was there 2 years ago we always went to a gusthas on top of a mountain and ate as it was beautful and peaceful. There was a big church there that wasn't used any more and I told my wife to stand in the doorway and I would take some pictures. She did and then asked what all the holes were around this doorway. They were bullet holes and the same all around all the windows. It gave me an erie feeling just knowing that a lot of people had died here. I guess that is why it was always so calm and peaceful there. My dad was in the Pacific during the war and he would never talk about it. At the time of his death we found out that he had 4 bronze stars plus many other medals but all these year we never knew. I cannot imange the hell that these guys went thru and some of the this they saw.

I read that many of the D-Day vets that saw saving private Ryan said the it was depicted so well some were having flash backs. Bill

I served my last year in the Navy aboard the USS Basilone DD-824.

Hermit , I was on the Carpenter DD 825. Ron Mn

Band of Brothers was a very good show. Not a Hollywood show.

A man I know told me. He couldn't watch the landing scene in Ryan without crying and ducking. Said it was very real.He lost most of his squad just getting off the landing craft.

I have an elderly friend who was in combat engineers; on the beach at Utah at 6:30 a.m. on 6/6/44. He said that the landing scene in 'Ryan' was almost more than he could take. Cried like a baby.

Agreed, JD.

There are no longer any Jimmy Stewarts or Martha Rayes in Hollywood.

Dean
Martha Raye

I have copies of both series and some. I read 'With The Old Breed' and 'Helmet For My Pillow' which are the two books that 'Pacific' was based on. I found the series pretty true to the books. I think Pacific was a story similar to 'Red Dawn'or 'Fighter Pilot's Story' (a PBS series) which tells the sad story of literal kids who go to war and are unwittingly, by circumstance of survival, turned into cold killing machines. I can never understand how anyone can be exposed to such events and later go on to lead normal lives. I have always liked movies (even American Graffiti and Animal House) that end by showing a short blurb of what happened to these people in later life. Most (of the real characters) turn out OK.
For those "antique vehicle" people among you; look in the back ground of the Pacific scene where they are scrubbing out the 55 gallon drums. The jeep back there is a CJ-3. No live rear axles.

I have both. I thought "The Pacific" was more emotional because of the brutality of the Japanese. The battle for Okinawa was one of the worst of the war.

On a different note, I saw a "Proud to be a Marine" sticker on the back of a Japanese car. How could be anyone who is a part of the heritage of the Marine Corp ever buy a vehicle from a nation that has killed more Marines than any other?

I personally have never bought a Japanese car, and I never will. Remember, Pearl Harbor was just a "limited air strike with no boots on the ground."

JD Seller;

I saw Ann Margret at a USO show in Phu Kat. Black jump suit filled out quite nicely. I, too, have respect for her and Bob Hope. Rosie Greer was there too. The Jane Fondas, Sean Penns and others are a disgrace to this country.

It seems as I get older, I appreciate the sacrifices our fathers, uncles, and brothers made more than ever.

I know "Hollywood war" is not real war, but some movies come closer than most.

Larry

For you Marines who don't know they did make "Band of Brothers, Pacific" which deals with the Corps.

In the original Band of Brothers series the 503rd Regiment saw almost continuous combat duty from D Day until the wars end. Some of the original members were with the unit from it's formation until the wars end. When they made the Pacific they decided to make it the same number of episodes. What they didn't research was the fact that the Marines were put onto an island, they stayed until the Army took over or the island was secured. Then they had, some times long breaks to rest, refit, absorb new Marines and train before the next island. Once the Marines were up to 5 or 6 divisions the last division in combat didn't take part in the next invasion unless it was one of the bigger islands. Also with repeated landings many Marine units had no original survivors who stayed with the same unit through the entire war. Often when wounded they wound up in other units. The Marines also rotated guys who had been in combat back to the states to help form new units. So it's hard to track a company of Marines that went through boot camp then deployed to war and survived intact as a unit. With the 503rd it was easy. They went into combat in June 1944 and it wasn't a year later when the war in Europe was over. The 1st Marine Division invaded Guadalcanal in 42 and was still in the Pacific when the Japanese surrendered in 1945.

The 1st marine Division spent a total of 4 months and 2 days on Guadalcanal, From the 26 of Dec 43 until sometime in Feb 44, so about 2 months. One month in Peleliu and then Okinawa for 3 months from the 1st of Apr until the end of June 45. That's a total of about 10 months in combat yet in the combat zone for 4 years.

The 1st Marines left Guadalcanal in Dec 42 and did not go back into combat until Dec 1943. They were redeployed again in Feb 44 for 2 months and then had a break until Sep 44 when they again went into combat for one month. They did not go into combat again until April 45. This is where there was a good deal of resentment from some members of the Army who invaded North Africa in 42, Sicily in 43 and Italy in 43. Most of those units fought on until the German surrender. Many thought that the Marines got too much glory.

This is not a reflection of my thoughts but from WWII Vet I have known.

Rick

A guy I worked with years ago flew Martha Raye around Vietnam said she was one classy lady. He was helicopter pilot must have been good because he did about everything.

(quoted from post at 17:43:26 12/28/13) For you Marines who don't know they did make "Band of Brothers, Pacific" which deals with the Corps.

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Thanks Rick, I'll have to look it up, never even heard of it.

(quoted from post at 16:30:09 12/28/13) I have both. I thought "The Pacific" was more emotional because of the brutality of the Japanese. The battle for Okinawa was one of the worst of the war.

[b:aba79f75e9]On a different note, I saw a "Proud to be a Marine" sticker on the back of a Japanese car. How could be anyone who is a part of the heritage of the Marine Corp ever buy a vehicle from a nation that has killed more Marines than any other?[/b:aba79f75e9]

I personally have never bought a Japanese car, and I never will. Remember, Pearl Harbor was just a "limited air strike with no boots on the ground."

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I guess because that was Japan then and this is Japan now. I spent 18 glorious months in Okinawa in the early 80's. After having grown up around WW2 Pacific Theater vets I was prepared to find hostile little killers on Okinawa. Instead I found very hard working, disciplined people who, if treated with the respect any decent human deserves, would return the respect and whatever else you put into the relationship. I only ran into a few knotheaded kids that acted like they wanted to start WW2 all over again. The older people, those who lived through WW2, would tell you straight out they didn't know what was really going on and that there was nothing they could have done about it anyway. They were conscripted and beaten into submission and more or less brain washed. I found the Okinawans to be fine people overall.

Menawhile, back at home at that time, our cars were trash, our society was still living out the aftermath of Vietnam, drugs were flowing like water and the "where's mine?" crowd was getting it's foot in the door. I ended up buying 2 Toyota PUs, one I put over 300K on before rust got it and the other I bought used with 140K on it and it made it another 140K before rust killed it. Those people over there designed very, very good machinery and built those trucks in the USA. Our people USED to design and build very good machinery- now it's not so hot and is built someplace else to low standards, unless you're willing to sink $70K into a PU!

And you wonder why a Marine would drive a Toy, Nissan or Subaru?

That is the difference between then and now. After WWII we occupied both Germany and Japan as a conquering force for a number of years. We in effect ran their countries including schools for a long time. Today we try turning over a country to their own leadership right away. That explains why we were successful in making Japan and Germany into friends and have failed in Iraq and Afghanistan. In both cases of Germany and Japan the US military leadership was fantastic .

Rick

My grandmothers brother, great uncle to me, served with the 27th Division, 105th Infantry Company D, in the south pacific. He enlisted in 1939. It seems they did some island fighting with the Marines, click on the link to read. He survived all of the campaigns they were involved with. They fought hand to hand with the Japanese. His experiences were hard to deal with, he took some time when he was discharged to cope with what happened. He was awarded 2 bronze stars. He was discharged either late '45 or early '46, it was winter and they were staged at Ft Dix, in brutally cold weather, my grandparents with my father along went to pick him up, they were in tents with small woodstoves.

He eventually came home, raised a large family, lived a quiet and honorable life, retiring finally at age 86, I remember him still working. He is listed in the 2nd link, 20201754 from Troy N.Y. I did not post his name out of respect for the family, he recently passed away, the chances I had to bump elbows with him and attend family affairs, like at Christmas a few times, it was an honor.

I think the Marines were known as "the" invasion force in the south pacific, but the Army sure did its part too, as per the above.
105thth NY Infantry

27th Division World War Two Men who were federalized in 1940 Last Names Beginning with C

Jimmy Stewart was a very humble man, he is one of my favorites of that era, we all enjoyed his work as an actor/entertainer, he kept his lengthy military service/career low profile, he wanted no special treatment and did his part with many combat missions over Germany, he was persistent it seems to be assigned for combat and to overcome many obstacles to be a pilot. A little far back for my generation, nonetheless he was a personal favorite of mine, its his demeanor and humility that I respect.

My dad was also in the 105th. saw some terrible action on Saipan and was wounded on Okinawa. Condolences on your great Uncle"s passing.

Heres a good listing of actors or entertainers who served in WW2. Not sure on the accuracy of all entries. Guys like James Arness, Eddie Albert and Lew Ayers on the first page will make you rethink just who they were!

http://www.wonderfulworldofimages.com/wwii-movie-stars/wwii-movie-stars.html

The US Army's 32d Division set the record for most days in actual combat during WWII (The Big One). 654 days. No one else even came close.

I will never criticize someone for buying a Japanese car or truck. We occupied them after WWII for about 8 years. Wrote their new constitution, gave them a new start and they have never turned their back on us. Get it through your thick head. The way to "WIN" a war is to beat the bloody crap out of them, occupy them and set them straight in a new direction. You're just plain dumb, plain and simple!