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

Ooh-Rah

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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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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."


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!:thumbsup:
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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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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 -
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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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
 
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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