# UPDATE - Rest in Peace.   November 2, 2017 .....I got to meet a hero yesterday -(WW2 Vet related) - Podcasted interview in OP



## Ooh-Rah (May 30, 2015)

I hope it is appropriate that I put this into Military History.

Long story short, the local cigar shop I hang out at has a card room - One gentleman who is there every morning at 10am is Papa.  He just turned 90 years old, plays poker and smokes all day long.  After many months of hanging around the table I finally achieved my primary objective.  One-on-one cribbage with Papa.  We played three games, he told me some stories, and he told his regular card guys that he was playing with his new friend.

I felt so honored to even be in his presence, much less be asked to play cards and hold a conversation with him.

I hope you take the time to watch the short video of him.  As he puts it, he tells the stories that don't get glorified in the movies, including anti-aircraft celebrating a hit, until they realize it was a US plane.  He gives this talk a few times a week, for a fee, and donates every penny to different vet organizations - Here is a quick bio about him,

_Joe served the United States in World War II under General George Patton, serving in Patton's 3rd Infantry. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in July of 1943, at the age of 18.  As part of D-Day, the Normandy invasion, Joe landed in France on Omaha Beach around July 15th, 1944. Joe fought the Battle of Cherbourg, Battle of the Bulge, forged north into Germany crossing the Rhine River, then into central Austria and Czechoslovakia. His division helped liberate multiple concentration camps; part of a large group of camps and sub-camps in Austria.  Joe enjoys sharing his story with Veterans groups, churches, synagogues, schools and training and civic organizations. His hope is to help generate donations for the Military Order of the Purple Heart.   "I just want the world to know. I want to impress on kids that freedom is not free. And, don't take things for granted because somebody had to pay the price."_

_*ETA - *_
This is a link to an interview a well known radio personality did with Papa last year.  It is about an hour long, but in my opinion so very worth the investment of time.   I consider myself so fortunate to call this man a friend.

In the Podcast he refers to a drug called "Blue 88" that the soldiers took.  Has anyone ever heard of this?  Blue 88 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The story he tells about the Concentration Camps are just heartbreaking.

http://www.spreaker.com/.../episode-18-the-war-veteran


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## Red Flag 1 (May 30, 2015)

Ooh-Rah said:


> I hope it is appropriate that I put this into Military History.
> 
> Long story short, the local cigar shop I hang out at has a card room - One gentleman who is there every morning at 10am is Papa.  He just turned 90 years old, plays poker and smokes all day long.  After many months of hanging around the table I finally achieved my primary objective.  One-on-one cribbage with Papa.  We played three games, he told me some stories, and he told his regular card guys that he was playing with his new friend.
> 
> ...



It is rare indeed to run into such a member of our greatest generation, and you are right to feel honored. There are so few of that generation left today, and it is important that we not loose our link with them. I am glad to hear that he still enjoys life with card games, and telling stories. Thanks for the video, and link with Papa!


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## RackMaster (May 30, 2015)

That's awesome.  It's great to see such great men still passing on their wisdom.


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## racing_kitty (May 30, 2015)

That truly warms the heart.


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## parallel (May 30, 2015)

Very cool... honor them while they're still here.


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## Grunt (May 30, 2015)

Those Warriors are walking-talking volumes of history concerning things we will never know about once they have passed on to their well-deserved rest.

I love talking with them. I could sit and listen for hours to their stories.


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## x SF med (May 30, 2015)

I wonder if the kids today realize what the world would have been like if the Allies lost WWII?  Men like Joe guaranteed their ability to be who and what they are today.


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## Atombomb (Sep 27, 2015)

Agoge said:


> Those Warriors are walking-talking volumes of history concerning things we will never know about once they have passed on to their well-deserved rest.
> 
> I love talking with them. I could sit and listen for hours to their stories.



I always felt like a kid around a campfire when listening to the stories I got to hear first hand....  It's a great privilege and honor to meet some of the men who are, and made history.   I also try to instill in my employees to thank all the military flights we work, and try to teach them what some of the callsigns and aircraft are.  It's sad how little some of them know and how little they care.


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## Marine0311 (Sep 27, 2015)

Ducking wow.


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 11, 2015)

With today being Veteran's Day, thought I would give this a bump.  Just saw him yesterday at the cigar store, the man loves his Gurka cigars and cribbage!


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 11, 2015)

Kinda cool - just ran into him at the cigar store - posed for a pic between games of cribbage - 

Funny story, do not remember if it was in the video I posted above.  Today he was talking about the speeches that he does, one was a rougher school in Minneapolis.  The principal pulled Papa aside and warned him that some students may try to challenge him with disrespect, how would he handle that?  Papa thought about it for a moment and said, "I'd tell the young man that when I was fighting in World War Two, I had no problem killing kids your age."  The principal actually laughed, and the assembly went off without a hitch.

Was very glad to see him today, word is he's had a few respiratory issues recently.

Tonight I am going to play the video for my kids, important for them to see/hear a real hero, vs the shit today's media tries to put up -


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## Ooh-Rah (Dec 24, 2015)

*Thought I would share this short clip from a speech he did about Christmas Eve 1944.  Such an amazing man, hang in there Papa, America needs you to keep telling these stories!*





__ https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1126770477335962


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## Ooh-Rah (Feb 26, 2016)

Papa turned 92 on Saturday.  We had a big bash for him at the cigar store.

He made an emotional (very) speech, talking about liberating the concentration camps and how the smell was so potent, that even today he can still remember in detail, the stench.

He went on to say that his last brother and friend from "the old days" passed away last weekend.  There is no one left for him to talk with anymore, and that we at the cigar store are his brothers and friends now.  I welled up then, and am doing so again now as I write this.  What a man - feeling so blessed that I am getting this time with him -


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## DocIllinois (Feb 26, 2016)

I like the hat he's wearing in post #11.  

Drive on, Papa!


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## Gunz (Feb 27, 2016)

Awesome.

Enjoy your precious time with Papa.


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## Ares (Feb 27, 2016)

I love meeting these guys, and thanking them. They're truly the greatest generation.

I was talking with my grandma on the phone about Philippine History for a project, and found out that my grandfather, in his short service during the war, was a guerrilla with Juan Pajota, and fought with Rangers at Cabanatuan. I'm proud of his service, and the man he was. Passed away in 2013, wish I'd have known and appreciated him as he deserved.


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## Marine0311 (Feb 27, 2016)

ARES_ said:


> I love meeting these guys, and thanking them. They're truly the greatest generation.
> 
> I was talking with my grandma on the phone about Philippine History for a project, and found out that my grandfather, in his short service during the war, was a guerrilla with Juan Pajota, and fought with Rangers at Cabanatuan. I'm proud of his service, and the man he was. Passed away in 2013, wish I'd have known and appreciated him as he deserved.



You can and should do so much more to honor him now. Get involved.


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## Ooh-Rah (Mar 3, 2016)

This is a link to an interview that a well known radio personality did with Papa last year.  It is about an hour long, but in my opinion so very worth the investment of time.   I consider myself fortunate to call this man a friend.  (it is a for profit podcast so I apologize for the ads at the beginning.)


In the Podcast he refers to a drug called "Blue 88" that the soldiers took.  Has anyone ever heard of this?  Blue 88 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The story he tells about the Concentration Camps are just heartbreaking.

http://www.spreaker.com/.../episode-18-the-war-veteran


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## DocIllinois (Mar 3, 2016)

Blue 88 was a sodium amytal pill used as a sleep aid for the "combat fatigued."

From a PBS _American Experience_ transcript on the Battle of the Bulge: 

*"Ben Kimmelman, Captain, 28th Infantry*: People who were not necessarily severely wounded but who were no longer in charge of themselves, they would put them in a detachment or an installation to put them through a kind of a very quick and dirty process in which they were given sodium amytal or one of these other-- it's a sort of a truth serum-thing, but it was in the form of tablets. And this would give them a very deep, deep sleep, sort of almost a trance-like sleep for 24, sometimes or 48 hours.

During this time, the enlisted men and myself would sometimes go by. We had to supervise it, because there'd be screaming and they would be deep, deep asleep and there'd be terrible expressions of their fear and their fright.
*.....................*

*Ben Kimmelman, Captain, 28th Infantry*: The assumptions were that this would have some kind of cathartic effect, the sodium amytal, which the men called ''blue 88's.'' You know, the most effective artillery piece of the Germans was the 88 and this was ''blue 88's,'' because the sodium amytal was a blue tablet."

Bulge Transcript


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 11, 2016)

Thought this an appropriate day to bump this thread.  

Papa and his wife are spending the day attending and speaking at various Veteran's Day remembrances.  

If you've never taken the time to watch the videos or listen to the podcasts in the OP, I highly recommend. 

Powerful stuff.


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 11, 2016)

Ooh-Rah said:


> Thought this an appropriate day to bump this thread.
> 
> Papa and his wife are spending the day attending and speaking at various Veteran's Day remembrances.
> 
> ...



All of the Vets at the Cigar store hanging with Papa this morning.


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## Ooh-Rah (Dec 5, 2016)

Say a little prayer if your inclined. Scary quiet at the cigar store as Papa's son just tore out of here -

He got a call from home that Papa is "unresponsive".

Damn

*<UPDATE>
*
False alarm.  He was having some sleep issues and took a sleeping pill.  It really knocked him out, to the point his wife could not wake him.  Son found the bottle on his night stand and he woke shortly after...out and about at the smoke-shop the next day playing cards and smoking his cigar!


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## Red Flag 1 (Dec 5, 2016)

[Q


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## Gunz (Dec 5, 2016)

Hate that it may be his curtain call...


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## Gunz (Dec 8, 2016)

Ooh-Rah said:


> Say a little prayer if your inclined. Scary quiet at the cigar store as Papa's son just tore out of here -
> 
> He got a call from home that Papa is "unresponsive".
> 
> ...




Good news, bro.


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## Red Flag 1 (Dec 13, 2016)

[Q


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## Ooh-Rah (Aug 4, 2017)

Crazy SOB refuses to go down.

Released from the hospital and back to smoking cigars and playing cards.

Today he was in the cigar store collecting funds for The Purple Heart Assoc.  He has himself personally collected over $70k.


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## Gunz (Aug 6, 2017)

Outstanding.


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## Ooh-Rah (Sep 12, 2017)

I cannot freeking wait for this!


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## Ooh-Rah (Sep 23, 2017)

Papa is speaking at the cigar shop this morning. All proceeds go to the Purple Heart foundation.


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## Ooh-Rah (Sep 23, 2017)

*- Watch This - 
...and have a kleenex handy...
From today's talk.  *

*It cannot be embedded, but was livestreamed on Facebook -*

*Just click this link - *


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## Ooh-Rah (Nov 2, 2017)

Rest in Peace, Papa.  Thank you for your incredible service.


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## Red Flag 1 (Nov 2, 2017)

C


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## DA SWO (Nov 2, 2017)

Ooh-Rah said:


> Rest in Peace, Papa.  Thank you for your incredible service.
> 
> View attachment 20159





RIP sir, you earned it.


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## Kraut783 (Nov 2, 2017)

Rest Easy Sir


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## RackMaster (Nov 2, 2017)

RIP Sir!


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## Frank S. (Nov 2, 2017)

Merci, Joe.


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## CDG (Nov 3, 2017)

RIP, Sir.


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## Andoni (Nov 3, 2017)

Rest in Peace, Sir.


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## x SF med (Nov 5, 2017)

Infantry Blue Skies for you, Joe.  Thank you.


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## Gunz (Nov 6, 2017)

RIP, Joe. May we all live as good a life and contribute so much to our brother and sister veterans.


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## BloodStripe (Nov 10, 2017)

RIP Papa Joe. Thanks for sharing his stories with us Oohrah!


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## Ooh-Rah (Aug 7, 2019)

Seems appropriate to bump this thread today.

You are remembered my friend, so much history is this thread.    

_On *August 7*, Purple Heart Day, the nation pauses to acknowledge and remember the sacrifices made by brave men and women in the military._


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## Ooh-Rah (May 25, 2020)

Remembering you on this Memorial Day, sir.

To those who are not familiar with this thread and have not listened to his story, I highly recommend you check out the 1st  page of this thread.


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