Posted by Ultradog MN on September 25, 2008 at 08:54:57 from (71.34.13.156):
Was at the grocery store picking up a few items yesterday and the old guy in front of me was wearing a ball cap with USS Columbia CL 56 on the brim. So I asked him about the ship and he told me he caught the ship in Norfolk in Late 42 and rode it till the end of the war. I asked him where he went and he told me they went to the South Pacific. I've always been interested in the Naval war in the Pacific so I asked him, Gudalcanal? "Yes we were there" Palau? "Yes we were there" Leyte Gulf? "Not at the big Leyte battles but all through the Phillipines. We got hit by a couple of Kamikazes in the Phillipines." I would have loved to talk to him longer but his wife wanted to go so he shook my hand and left. I told him thanks for what he had done but he just waved it off. When I got home I Googled his ship and was amazed to read how it had been to hell and back. 10 battle stars. Several score of men killed and hundreds wounded. He made it through without a scratch. Just a nice old gentle fellow now who had seen so much when he was just a kid. I wish I had gotten his phone # or something so I could have visited him. He said he had kept a diary which was illegal then but still has it. It would be interesting to read. He belongs to the Ships reunion assn and there are only about 40 of them left - out of 1400. I don't know why I'm writing this here. I guess after googling it I was just touched by all that he had been through and wanted to remind folks to think about it a little. Veteran's day isn't too far off. Maybe make a visit or shake an old timer's hand that day. Jerry
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Today's Featured Article - A 1937 John Deere Unstuck - by Gary Hickman. Here is my story of how I got the pistons out of a 1937 JD B that the engine had been stuck for about 14 years: About 12 years ago my Dad gave me one of the tractors I ran as I was growing up on our farm in central Nebraska. The engine on this tractor, a 1937 John Deere "B", had been stuck for 2 years before he gave it to me. This last spring (1999) I hauled the tractor to our 2 acre lot in St. Libory Nebraska where it joined my antique machinery collection, at that time a 1929 Caterpillar T
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