SwiftVets.com

[homesteader]

Arkady,

Are you writing all this down? You need to.

My father-in-law died a couple years ago. My wife said she never heard his war stories until she married me. Her dad seemed to open up to me because I was in the service. Toward the end we would hear the same stories repeated every time we met.

[arkadyfolkner]

oh yeah, i have written most down and am in the process of the rest.

[DaveS]

if you do know a WWII vet and you don't record their stories and photos we are losing a great deal of personal history. My dad was an LST anti-aircraft gunner. He is still with us and we have been able to record many of his stories and have placed them, along with photo's in a binder and digital album. I know from losing my grandfather that once they are gone you can never get answers to many questions of reminders of details.

[LewWaters]

All of my WW2 Vet relatives are gone now. Most never did disclose very much over the years.

However, for those old enough to remember the series, I recently ran across a 3 DVD set of all 26 episodes of Victory at Seain a clearance store for $6. They are no doubt pirated, but I bought it anyways.

[BuffaloJack]

Getting Vets from any war era to talk is always hard. It's even harder remembering the stories they told you.
My dad served as XO of a DD in WW2. Participated at Saipan, Tinian, Truck, and The Marianna's Turkey Shoot and his ship was hit by a Japanese suicide plane. I don't know if he told me any more than that or that I was too young to listen, but I don't even know the name of his ship. His father, my grandfather, served in WWI and all I know is that he brought back an English war bride, my grandmother.
When I was 8 or 9, I talked (listened) to my grandfather's uncle tell stories of fighting the Yankees with General Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. He was over a hundred years old at the time and now I wish I'd had a tape recorder to capture his stories.
Vets have the true record of our history within them, and after they're gone we only have the versions written by the revisionists.

Lew, your $6 video of "Victory at Sea" is probably a genuine one and not a pirated version. I recently bought a copy at Amazon for $10. The price has plummeted in recent years. Note: For anyone going to look for a copy of "Victory at Sea", there are 2 versions, the 26 episode set of 23 minute shows and, under the same title, a 2-1/2 hour combined and abridged (badly hacked) version. Both versions are similar in price. Don't be fooled into getting the wrong one.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[dusty]

As I mentioned above, I am getting a heavy dose of contact with a lot of the WWII vets lately.
And as several folks have talked about here, many of them are against the Iraq war.
I can't talk anymore so I have to write stuff down to converse with them but I've been having some spirited conversations with them that way and have managed to get some of them thinking quite differently without offending any of them.
The key seems to be to tickle their brains with a couple of questions. I ask them if we aren't supposed to learn from history so we don't repeat it. Then I ask them if it wouldn't have been better for someone to have stood up and taken Hitler down before he launched his aggression against the world and thereby save many millions of lives. Most immediatly say that would have been much better.
From there it's just a short step to bridge the gap to the current situation in Iraq and to show the correctness of G.W.'s policy of derailing these threats when we see them gathering. A few mentions of the training camps Saddam was running and his practice of shooting at our pilots in the 'No Fly Zone' will usually bring home the point for them.
At least they seem to be coming around or they are just agreeing with me so they can quit having to put their glasses on to read my notes.

Dusty
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Left and Wrong are the opposite of Right!

[AMOS]

Dusty, Pearl Harbor...........World Trade Center. You've probably already mentioned that.