World War II vets

[Zacatecas]

Last week I attended a funeral for a 92 year old WW2 vet. It made me wonder how many vets were left since most of them are probably in their 90's.

[alphabet]

There are a lot considering the last person from WWI just passed away. Some of these WWII vets might live to see a hundred, maybe even longer. Enjoy it while they're alive and learn from them.

[James]

There are about 1.9 million WWII vets in the States. If you consider that something like 16 million men and women served, this means that almost 90% of American WWII vets have passed away.

[Jarhead]

My Great-Granddad is a Wehrmacht combat vet - he turned 91 yesterday.
Thankfully he is still around and kicking.

[sgt_G]

My Great-Granddad is a Wehrmacht combat vet - he turned 91 yesterday.
Thankfully he is still around and kicking.

Would love to hear some of his stories!

[Cstafford]

My family has lost all of our WW2 and Korea vets. Makes me sad.

[Jarhead]

Would love to hear some of his stories!

Are you a member on the WAF (Wehrmacht Awards Forum)?
If so you can view most of his service photos, awards/documents and his military history.
If not - sign up - it's for free

He was a Panzergreandier serving with Pz.Gren.Rgt. 104 in Afrika, Sicily and Italy.
He has been awarded for the:

• EK II (Iron Cross 2nd. Class)
• Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz (Black Wound Badge) - wounded twice by enemy Artillery
• Panzerkampfabzeichen in Bronze (Tank Assault Badge in Bronze)
• Medaille zum italienisch -deutschen Feldzug in Afrika (Italo-German medal for the War in Africa)
• Ärmelband "Afrika" - "Afrika" cufftitle

I have all his awards,(except the BWB), documents, photos as well as his dog tag.

Cheers,

[commanding]

My Great-Granddad is a Wehrmacht combat vet - he turned 91 yesterday.
Thankfully he is still around and kicking.

Jarhead,
Is your 91 year old great grandfather still mentally lucid? Don't mean to sound harsh....my own mother is living at age 95 but her mind has been gone for years. Some people retain their mental functions better than others, hope your great g.f. is one who is still fairly healthy and lucid (you said he was around and kicking).

All veterans of WWII, no matter the country or side, have stories to tell. You should record his memoirs on digital recorder and put on CD disk for descendants of yours/his.

[Jarhead]

Jarhead,
Is your 91 year old great grandfather still mentally lucid? Don't mean to sound harsh....my own mother is living at age 95 but her mind has been gone for years. Some people retain their mental functions better than others, hope your great g.f. is one who is still fairly healthy and lucid (you said he was around and kicking).

All veterans of WWII, no matter the country or side, have stories to tell. You should record his memoirs on digital recorder and put on CD disk for descendants of yours/his.

I'd say for a 91 year old he's still fine, although he's suffering from dementia (not that serious though).
Sorry to hear that about your mom.

He used to tell me alot of his war stories when I was younger - nowadays we just talk about our military time and life in general.
The funny thing is that we both served as Panzergrenadiere - he's always laughing about that fact.

I thought about recording his memories before - hopefully I can "motivate" him to share his stories again.

[LineDoggie]

I had a Neighbor Harry G. who was a Luftwaffe Field Division flieger. Surrendered to some G.I.'s at Normandy. He was Born in Brooklyn New York and his father sent him to Germany in 1938 (Father was a Bundist). After the war he joined the USAAF in 47 just before it became the USAF and served in Korea. Later he worked at Republic Aircraft. He still had his M40 Single decal Stahlhelm when he died in 2006. His Father was a Machinegun Schutze in the Imperial German Army and in the Freikorps after WWI and was also born in Brooklyn USA according to his paybook. EK1 & EK2, Wound badge.

Harrys son was going to throw all his dads stuff away as he was embarrassed his dad was "a Nazi" which harry wasnt. I finally convinced him to keep all the documents as how many German Soldiers were born in Brooklyn? the great grandfather was in a reiter regiment.

Harry used to get drunk with my Dad, & Bill the Marine Raider, and Pete Stern the Jewish 9th USAAF vet when I was a Kid and swap tales. I wish I had tapes of them as the experiences were something. the night usually ended with them climbing bills tree while us kids watched.

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

My grandparents were too young to serve in WW2 and my great-grandparents were too old, or had medical conditions that kept them from serving (like my great-grandfather who was burned on a stove as a small child and couldn't raise his arms above his shoulders due to the scar tissue). So I never had any WW2 veterans in my family to begin with (well, some great-uncles that I've never met). I've only met a handful in my life. One guy who survived U-boat attacks on the US east coast and another that flew bomber patrols over the Atlantic.

[ferguson]

Most WW2 guys are mid 80s or more.

My uncle was a seabee and my dad was 506th PIR.
I come from a small rural community where non-vets were considered scurrilous oxygen thieves.
Still are, to an extent.
Most of my friends dads were vets and grand-dads were WW1vets.
Both my gramps went to France in 1917,
I used to collect WW2 relics and got quite a lot of good stuff back when most of it was still in vet hands.
I have breakfast a few times a week at our local restraunt.
I have an earned spot at the "old guys" table and a few WW2 guys show up every day.
Also Korea and a few VN guys.
Sometimes war stories get passed around, especially when non vets are at home.
It is like "if you never bothered to put in your time, it's none of your business."
I still kick up the occaisional souvenier locally.
The WW2 guys are leaving us fast.
Our local vet organizations suffer significanly as they were the backbone.

[ilmakas]

My grandfather was in Red Army. Unfortunately he died when I was 5, so I didnt get to hear his warstories. i know that he was wounded during the battle of Velikiye Luki. About two or three years ago I was at a birthday party where one of the older folks told about being in Leningrad as a kid in 1941 and how they were saved in the winter of 1941/42 when the Road of Life opened. Really grim stuff.

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

Typically, the last veterans of a war die at about 90 years after the war ended.

[Grey Stoat]

My grandfather fought in the Winter War and in the Continuation War, he survived WW2 mostly without a scratch. He died at the age of 88 in early 2005. I was one of the pall-bearers in his funeral along with my dad and older brother.