Family History Tales

[MacGregor]

apperantly my paternal uncle fought for the partisans in WWII and went into several Concentration Camps(Mauthausen), where he was freed in 1945 and then history says he was drafted by the CIC ... where he spied for the americans in the commandant's office in Vienna ...funny enough he got caught and went to sibiria for another 6 years (which he survived aswell)
In the eigthies he was given a green card and lived until 1998
in Arlington (when googling his name I found him on a federal CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION LIST for a Republican Senator )

and I also found his name in the Assn. Former Intelligence Officers. Membership Directory .... so there must be a little truth in this story

from the maternal side I only heard stories that my grandfather was in some kind of Kings(zar)Guard....and than worked for the railway
he died in the ninties after smoking all his live they wanted to take both of his legs .... he wanted to die in one piece ...and he did

in the US bombardments of 1998 over Serbia my maternal grandmother died, our house down there is pretty close to military base

[Stainless Steel Rat]

Not quite as exciting as many here, my family does not have a military tradition.

On my mom's side, an uncle did some research and found my great-great grandfather had come from Germany in 1848 (probably due to the revolution there) and later served in the Union Army in the Western regions during the Civil War.

Another uncle recently told me he had enlisted in 1944 and was being trained as an interperter at Harvard (or Yale, I can't remember) when he and his class were picked up, sent to France, handed rifles and tossed into the Battle of the Bulge. He lost two toes to frostbite and does not care to speak of what happened during that time.

My dad (who would have been 34 at the time) enlisted in 1942 and as a SSGT led convoys from the Arabian Gulf/Med to meet up with the Russians to provide support. He had quite a few pictures of the time and place, along with a Bronze Star and his Discharge papers, which came to me when he died in 2001. I really need to go through them and organize them one day.

Dad also had a cousin who was a bombadier on a B24 over Europe. The one thing I noticed about all of them is that they seldom talked about the war; it was something that happened, they did their duty, and came back home to start/resume their lives.

Sorta wish I knew more about them knwo that they are gone (except for my uncle, who is 85 and going strong).

[Toddy1]

My great uncle Jack marched over a hill at a small place called Monte Casino in Italy, you may have heard of it hahaha, well anyway he was gung ho Scottish regiment, well the whole lot of them were captured without firing a shot and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp...it used to be hillarious hearing him tell the story.

One of my other great great uncles enlisted in the Black and Tans when he was 16 and his mother had to buy him out, then he joined up for WWI on the front lines, also served in WWII front lines, not a scratch, well he was home in Glasgow on leave and got knocked down by a tram car and killed during a blizzard, he had gone slightly deaf from the shelling of two world wars. My gran, god rest her soul, used to always say it was ironic and that when your time is up it is up, nothing you can do to stop it.

[SBL]

One of my other great great uncles enlisted in the Black and Tans when he was 16 and his mother had to buy him out, then he joined up for WWI on the front lines,

Perhaps I'm thinking of a different Black & Tans, but I always thought they were established after the war and made up of WWI vets?

[Breakfast in Vegas]

My Dad was B-52 aircrew (electrician) in the Vietnam War and flew missions out of Guam and Okinawa.

While stationed on Guam, he reported that there were always Russian trawlers (spy ships) offshore in international waters that would report the takeoffs and landings of the aircraft to inform the North Vietnamese air defense. Although US aircrew didn't like the presence of the trawlers offshore, there was little they could do about it.

One day one of the pilots decided to take matters into his own hands and after taking off, he flew at extremely low altitude and headed straight for one of the trawlers milling around a couple of kilometers from the base. Taking course directly for the trawler, just he was about to pass right over it he opened the bomb bay doors... with the site of the massive black and green bomber headed right towards them, about half of the trawler crew bailed into the water and as the huge aircraft flew over the boat, the noise and sonic vibrations of the passing aircraft rattled the boat and churned up the sea....

Must have been quite a sight!

In any case the pilot received a mild remprimand and a round of drinks upon his return to base after the mission.

The trawler crew received a free shower courtesy of the USAF. Wonder if the Politburo sent them complimentary underpants to replace the ones destroyed that day?

[Toddy1]

Perhaps I'm thinking of a different Black & Tans, but I always thought they were established after the war and made up of WWI vets?

Well f me Snakebite....I never even bothered to check, just took it as Gospel of Paul...Maybe I got the story wrong, or maybe it was just pure BS from my family

Thanks for the heads up.

[jetsetter]

I knew one of my relatives died during World War Two but I didn't know how, until now.

On 23 December, the squadron, except for those who were to fly aboard, embarked on the "Galloping Ghost", the carrier that was so often "sunk" by the enemy. But first, lest we forget: On 31 August, Ensign Richard Blake Jones crashed into the sea to become the first loss to the new squadron. He was on a run-in hop and crashed in mid-afternoon, just south of Waikiki Beach. On 10 November 1944, Ensign John F. Lungershausen, on a practice masthead bombing run, crashed into the sea about a mile off the coast of Oahu near Waianae, to become the squadron's second and last loss while at Barbers Point.

http://www.cv6.org/ship/logs/vfn90/default.htm

Along with Night Torpedo Squadron 90, Night Fighting Squadron 90 (VF(N)-90) made up Night Air Group 90, which deployed with Enterprise CV-6 between 24 December 1944 and 31 May 1945. In five months of intensive action at Luzon, Formosa, Tokyo, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Kyushu, VF(N)-90 claimed 42 enemy planes destroyed, and 4 more damaged or destroyed, a VF(N) record bested only by VF(N)-41 operating from the carrier Independence in 1944.

http://www.cv6.org/ship/logs/vfn90/default.htm

Seems that had he not died he would have been deployed at sea on the Enterprise.

[Popsiq]

My Dad was an aircraft fitter in 13 squadron, Desert Air force in North Africa and Italy.

He told me an interesting story about one of his squadron mates who had a taste for the local snails (escargots?). When it rained, fairly tall grass grew and large snails appeared. This chap would get up early, take a bucket and go off to pick snails.

On one particular occasion he came across a solitary German paratrooper in the grass. The man must been there a while for he wanted something to eat more than he wanted to fight. The 'erk' led him back, fully-equipped to the base, where he was given a cuppa and some bread and jam. The MP's were called.

They showed up an hour or so later. Three truckloads, kitted-out for heavy combat. Guns drawn, they arrested the gerry and removed his equipment, which nobody had thought about doing. He had some hand grenades in his pack. They trussed him up and marched him off, and the squadron got back to business.

Where in North Africa, or when, I have no idea. My Dad also told me, that he'd heard that a German fallschirmjaeger had been caught, up a tree, not far from where the Casablanca conference was going on.

[Popsiq]

An interesting story from the Italian campaign. The Poles were there as part of the Allied armies liberating Europe. ioles had come from Iran (via Russia) from the middle east and from Canada, via Britain, to form the Polish Division. They fought at Cassino and get credit for cracking that nut.

When they, and the others liberated Rome, the Prior of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a Pole, invested every Pole, (or every Polish officer?) as a member of one of the oldest Orders of Knighthood.

Emblem of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a Papal Order of knights with lieutenancies in the USA and other countries.

[Popsiq]

Even Canada back in the Second World war had a strong isolationist sentiment. For this reason, and to increase recruitment, even in the early days, volunteers were recruited for 'home service only'. They wore a special shoulder flash and were generally referred to, derogatively, as "zombies".

When the Japanese invaded the Aleutians in 1942, the Canadian Department of Defense ordained that the Aleutians were part of North America and that home defense units could be deployed there.

After the conclusion of the Attu and Kiska campaigns the 'Zombies' were given the choice of putting the rest of the war in on those god-forsaken islands or re-upping for general service. Many chose the latter over the cold and constant wet. They found themselves going ashore at Normandy in June 44 and doing the NW Europe drive for the rest of their war.

[Creampuff]

From an early age my dad was fascinated by movies, in particular westerns and war movies, so when the U.S came to Western Samoa during ww2 dad more then any of his brothers or cousins reveled in seeing what up until then he had only glimpsed in magazines and the flicks.

He would tell many a story of the the Sea bees and Marines that his family befriended, one story revolved around a Marine that became close friends with my grand father, This guy, i forget his name but he would periodically ask my granddad to sharpen his k bar, the story goes that this particular Marine would eventually die running a message back to his lines after his unit was cut off on a hill during the battle for Guadalcanal.

I guess been at an impressionable age these early events really shaped my fathers future and later after emigrating to NZ he would join the NZ army first with the infantry and later transferring to the gunners. Luckily for me though, by the time 161 battery were marked for Viet nam, dad and mum were already married. Unfortunately and sad to say the guy that took my dads place, His Land rover ran over a mine. RESPECT.

[sepheronx]

My father worked for the US government up north in Alaska, working on Radar towers to detect Soviet Missiles and planes. He then worked for some Texan company and was stationed in Pakistan, setting up communication towers. The company went out of business, right at the same time Bhutto's father was killed, and so a uprising occurred.

My great grand father, fought in the Bolshevik Revolution.

[Michael S.]

Does anyone here know anything about {Sayeret Mat'kal "OPS SPICKET"}my father was part of this team in the early 1960's as either a U.S. Gov't or Canadian volunteer. The early beginnings of the 1967 war in Israel, this part was the water war.

[Michael S.]

O.K. I'm not Mossad, and I teach little children about nature and the environment, but I would like to know if there is anyone out there that was on our side, Israel, IDF, infrom 1959 to 1967 that would know about the observers that watched the Syrians and Jordan.
I do like to have some fun with the watch tower people every year.

[Alhill2488]

First of all, hey first post so here it is...
My dad served in the RAF for 8 years including serving in the Falkland islands campaign. My grandad and his 2 brothers all served as RAF techies during World war 2 in Egypt/Africa working on Liberators I believe. Although not much is known, we are fairly confident family members have served in the Boer War in the Staffordshire Regiment (yeomanry) and that my great uncle was killed in World war 1 by mustard gas. On my mothers side, my grandad served in the RAC (Royal Armoured Corps) during the 1950's. Im not too sure of any others, but I'll try having a look around the photos and asking the old man.