REAL Soldiers
I know that one of the things that this blog has done with great ferocity and pleasure is to take on the poseurs and wannabees. They always fall into 2 categories, those that have never served and those that have and yet feel the need to embellish said service (see of course Sporkmaster’s latest schmuck) and those that have made up completely their military service ala General Ballduster McSoulpatch (the absolute best name for a wannabe evah!!!)
I came across this story in the local fishwrap and it is what most of the comments of “Catagory 1” wankers seem to draw….if you served honorably, why lie about it? Well, this guy didn’t and felt that the awards weren’t the biggest deal about his service (waddaya know, a humble vet…) He received 2 awards 65 years after he received them….
He was 25 years old and just finished serving the duration of U.S. involvement in World War II. He did not particularly care that he deserved some medals.
“When I got out, I just wanted to forget about the war and go on,” said Young. “It didn’t bother me if I didn’t have the medals.”
And to top it all of they gave the guy a flag that flew over the Capitol on his 90th birthday, nice touch..
Discharge papers stated he earned two medals he never received, but Young never bothered to ask for them.
“I didn’t know anything about the medals,” Young said. “I didn’t even know I had them coming (before being discharged), and I don’t know why I didn’t get them.”
I think this guy is probably more in line with the majority of vets out there, I just thought maybe some of the poseurs out there might want to see what a real man looks like…
Category: Real Soldiers, War Stories
Looks awful good for 90 years young. Salute, Mr. Young, and thank you for your service.
Thank you Mr. Young. He is the type of man that my father met with most every weekend at the coffee shop. Only combat vets from WWII were in the group. Dad was ETO, infantry.
My family is from the area -I lived in Jackson until I went into the USAF. (I listened very carefully to the hard earned wisdom of Dad when he told me that living in foxholes and being under arty was highly overrated.) 😉
Reminds me of my dad, he served as UDT in Korea and never made a big deal out of it. It was just something that had to be done and he did it.
Best advice he gave me about the military was to make sure I had a school lined up in the enlistment papers and to stay the hell away from submarines.
Instinct,
When I joined my Grandfather’s advice to me was “DON’T let the Drill Sergeants learn your name” It was damn good advice until I was awarded Top Honor Graduate. By then, my Drill Sergeants wouldn’t let me out of their sight so that other Drill Sergeants wouldn’t go after me!
Great Post Old Tanker:
Now, did you do that just so Jesse McFake and Matthis would feel bad? Did you really have to put that up and make all the wannabes so envious?
Some of us appreciate REAL troopers, (even if they were “Tankers”).
Thank you for your service, Sir!
Nuf Sed
Nice post. My dad was a Navy Corpsman in the Pacific in WWII. He spent the majority of his time with the Marines, but you wouldn’t know it if you depended upon him for the information. He’s the same way. A couple years back he got a package in the mail from some group that was reviewing WWII service records and noted that he was eligible, but had never received some awards. The package included them. He just put them and the paperwork into a box with all his other Navy stuff and never said anything else about them.
I spoke with him last night. He’ll be 91 this year, but is still going strong. He was more concerned about mt son over in Afghanistan than himself. Most of his generation were like that. It’s only occasionally, and usually by accident, that I hear of something he was involved in back then, and that’s too bad because all of them ought to have written down some sort of remembrance about what they did, what they experienced, whether in combat, or stateside, or wherever. All their stories are worth remembering. It’s a part of who we are.
God bless them all.
Gotta love a guy like that. Like I have always said, the real heroes never seek anything extra, even when you wish they would.
When I read memoirs, this is the thing. They go to war, do the job and try to come home and move on, especially WW2 soldiers.
Go Mr. Young, you look younger than some 60 yo’s.
Jackson. Famous for the prison and the (supposed) birthplace of the GOP. Big-time race track now also. Progress.
Used to go to the Cascades and places various substances (soap, food coloring, etc.) at the top to see the amazing effects.
Is not a bad place to be from, though it was pretty run down when last I was there. Cascades was caged in. Trickle down from DEEtroit and general Rust Belt phenom I suppose.
Ron,
I live about 1/2 a mile from Cascades, they fenced it in to charge admission, you should see the computerized light show now….a really nice upgrade. They did build a bandshell for free concerts though, I got to see an Army reserve band and an Air Force band do old “Big Band” Glenn Miller type shows. I hate to admit it but the Air Force Band was much better. Since the 70’s and 80’s we’ve lost the big Goodyear plant, Clark Equipment, Kelsey Hayes, Hayes Albion, and TRW….rust belt phenom to be sure…
OT, those companies were major employers when I was growing up, and a number of neighbors parents had retired from them. Times surely do change.
Heh, nice to hear a positive comment about the USAF! I left Jackson in ’71 for Lackland, and have only been back for short visits. Cascades Park was beautiful in winter, under a heavy snowfall. Great sledding.
As AW1 Tim mentioned, we also tried for years to get Dad to help us know of his experiences growing up on the farms our family had in the area, and most especially what he did and where he was at in WWII. Never would write down a history of his life, and spoke very little of WWII.
Best Regards,
My dad fought in some of the hottest combat in the Philippines, and never said a word about it. We knew only that he’d been a P-51 crew chief in occupied Japan. He’d occasionally mention something humorous about his service, but never real details.
In preparing for his funeral, Mom gave me his military stuff to do a display. When the CIB fell out of that envelope, you could have knocked me flat with a feather. I had to research his unit assignments to find out the slightest bit of what he’d gone through.
Wish I’d been able to draw a bit more info from him when he was alive.