Dear Dave,
So glad Vic survived. What a loss of all those young men! Did he ever tell you what actually happened to him in the Pacific?
It is so interesting how just a few years in age can make such a difference in memories of something as important as WWII. I was born in 1943 so I have no actual memory of the war. However, the war itself had such an impact on my family that I often feel I must have been there when it happened. My parents were married, and my brother was 3 years older than me. My dad had lost vision in his eye when he was 16, and I always remember him with a glass eye. This completely kept him out of the war.
My mother's brother, Richard, was also my father's best friend. He was an aeronautical engineer and was working at Wright Patterson, which was located in Dayton Ohio. He was involved in working on "big planes" (though I’m not sure what that meant). About one week after Pearl Harbor many planes were sent to California. My uncle was not a pilot but he went to Cal. on one of the big planes. After about another week he came back to Ohio, with one pilot and himself in a small plane. It was just before Xmas and, in a big snow storm, the plane crashed. The pilot actually parachuted out, and my uncle crashed. It’s been my plan, but I have never done it, to find out the real story about why my uncle Dick was killed.
Another brother of my mother, uncle Edward (Ted), was in Europe at the Battle of the Bulge. Today he is 95 years old and smart as a whip, and finally, after many years, he will talk a little bit about what happened. Like places he was at, who was in command, etc., but never about the personal fighting. I told him the Ken Burns special about the war was on TV and he might want to watch it. He watched one night and could not watch again because he had nightmares. He survived, came home, went to college, got married, and had a successful life. I’m not sure how he survived without the PTSS everyone has today.
Another brother of my mother, her oldest brother, uncle Bill, was in the Army. He was training in Maine and on the day he left for Europe, two other planes left at approximately the same time. All had been sabotaged, and they blew up within minutes of each other, killing all aboard.
So both of the brothers died shortly before I was born. My grandparents lived near us and as a child I was so annoyed at how often we had to go to the cemetery and put flowers on the graves etc. I remember around age 10 I told my mom I thought they should all "get over it" since it was over ten years. How little I knew about relationships.
My father’s baby brother, uncle Mel, joined as soon as he turned 18, fought in the South Pacific, and even though I don't remember it, apparently my father stressed so much about his brother that he was skinny and anxious during the whole war. And also over the loss of his brother in laws. Mel did survive though, and I recall him in uniform
Uncle Mel lived in Arizona, and my dad was very close to him. He just died this year and never ever would talk about the war. He did make a career out of the Marines and lived all over the world. He also never exhibited PTSS that I ever heard about. He told me he had nightmares a lot but he could always function.
My mother had another brother, Tim. He was also in the war. However, as I grew up I learned he was in a mental institution, and -- don't ask me why -- I never recall visiting him. All I knew was he had suffered from "shell shock" due to the war. As I grew older, I became interested in this and started to ask questions, only to discover he had been sent to training in the U.S. and never saw combat. My mother said he was a paranoid schizophrenic, and it was only when he left for training that it became obvious. My uncle claims he was injured and had a head injury in training. However, the first diagnosis certainly sounds correct from his behavior.
My brother and I played war all the time. We had metal soldiers, and my brother always won and I always lost. We also played “the Russians Are Coming” and spent hours scanning the sky for the planes. We were obsessed about it, but, when I think of what the family lost, it must have had a huge effect on us as children.
I didn't really understand what happened to the Jews until middle school, and even then not the full impact. Since then I have on my own read many many books about the Jews in WWII. My kids would say I am obsessed with it.
I also feel as though I knew both my uncle Dick and uncle Bill because the family talked about them so much. We lived in a small town, and not long ago someone said that my grandparents had the biggest loss in the county. When they went places a hush would just sort of settle in -- no one really knew what to say to them.
I can hardly comprehend what my family suffered during the time just before my birth. My uncle, the one that is 95, is just so upset about the war in Iraq and said he hates Bush and that was not why he fought in WWII. I just read a saying, “man is a wolf eating other wolves.” Memorial Day, God what bad memories! Never a fun day in my childhood.
Oh no, this sounds so depressing, but I guess it was the reality. Jayme has great pics of V, will try to send them to you. See you.
Linda
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-Linda C (6-3): thanks for the great editing and picture, that is a photo i have never seen before.
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