 | Requesting stories, poems and quotes| Stories Discuss Requesting stories, poems and quotes in the World War II - Aviation forums; Wow! Now that is a hero! Amazing story, FBJ!... |
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07-12-2005, 01:37 PM
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#31 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country:  | Wow! Now that is a hero! Amazing story, FBJ!
__________________  http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | 
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07-12-2005, 01:39 PM
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#32 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country:  | that's more like it cheers.........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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07-12-2005, 01:39 PM
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#33 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,061
Country: | Did he get a Medal of Honour for that because he certainly deserved it! Now that's a soldier!
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. | |
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07-12-2005, 01:46 PM
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#34 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | Thanks guys - Ya know Lanc, I posted that story about my Uncle in here about his friend who was playing inside the cockpit on a P-40 and was pretending to talk on the mike when in reality he had the piss tube up to his mouth!
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT"  | 
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07-12-2005, 01:49 PM
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#35 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country: |
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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07-12-2005, 01:52 PM
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#36 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | Here another one from when I used to live close to Edwards AFB.......
In order to prepare bomber crews for combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II, Army Air Force engineers constructed a full-sized replica of an enemy warship in a cove at the south end of the Muroc Dry Lake bed. The giant training aid was built of 4-by-4 timbers covered with chicken wire, flocked with chopped chicken feathers. Often erroneously called a battleship, it was in reality a surprisingly realistic silhouette of an Atago-class heavy cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Bulldozers raised long earth berms along the sides of the ship to simulate wake and wave action. Immediately nicknamed the Muroc Maru,it was used for bombing and strafing practice, and for recognition training. Crews of medium bombers developed and practiced the skip-bombing technique which was later used to good effect in combat.
Surprised visitors were often told, tongue-in-cheek, that the target vessel was only a desert mirage. Alas, stories and memories are all that remain of the imposing training aid. After the war, the Muroc Maru was deemed a safety hazard, and it was dismantled in the early 1950s. Not a trace remains today.
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT" | |
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07-12-2005, 01:54 PM
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#37 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | Here's another photo
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT" | |
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07-12-2005, 01:57 PM
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#38 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country: | That is a really cool story, FBJ. I think I am going to look a bit more into that for a newsletter article.
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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07-12-2005, 01:59 PM
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#39 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | My wife's grandfather bombed it when he was stationed at Muroc in 1944. Look at the Edwards PAO website.
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT" | |
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07-12-2005, 02:02 PM
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#40 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country: | Will do, thanks! I will see what else I can dig up as well. Sounds like a cool story and I think the guys at the museum would enjoy that one as well.
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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07-12-2005, 02:22 PM
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#41 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | thanks, but anything more emotional??
__________________
"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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07-12-2005, 02:36 PM
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#42 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | Hows this?!?......
A Classic Story
The Sullivan Brothers
Albert, Francis, George, Joseph and Madison Sullivan were born in Waterloo, Iowa, between 1914 and 1920. George and Francis enlisted in the Navy in 1937. Their three younger brothers joined the service in early 1942. All five were assigned to the commissioning crew of USS Juneau (CL-52) in February 1942. They remained with the ship through her Atlantic shakedown operations and subsequent combat actions in the Guadalcanal Campaign. All were lost with her on 13 November 1942, a tragedy that received wide publicity in the United States and resulted in a new Navy policy discouraging family members from serving together in the same ship.
In the aftermath of Juneau's loss, the Navy notified Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan of Waterloo, Iowa, that all five of their sons were missing in action. Two of the brothers had served previous four-year enlistments in the Navy and so, when all five brothers enlisted together on 3 January 1942, the Navy was the obvious choice. They had also insisted on serving together on the same ship. Although the accepted Navy policy was to separate family members, the brothers had persisted and their request was approved.
It was later learned, through survivors' accounts, that four of the brothers died in the initial explosion. The fifth, George Thomas, despite being wounded the night before, made it onto a raft where he survived for five days before succumbing either to wounds and exhaustion or a shark attack.
The brothers received the Purple Heart Medal posthumously and were entitled to the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four engagement stars and the World War II Victory Medal. They had also earned the Good Conduct Medal.
They were survived by their parents, Mr. Thomas F. Sullivan and Mrs. Alleta Sullivan, a sister, Genevieve Sullivan, and by Albert Leo Sullivan's wife, Katherine Mary Sullivan. Their son, James Thomas, was twenty-two months old at the time of his father's death.
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT" | |
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07-12-2005, 04:43 PM
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#43 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country: | Tragic
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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07-12-2005, 05:07 PM
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#44 | | IP/Mech THE GREAT GAZOO
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 13,596
Country: | GOT ONE FROM MY FAMILY
Just remembered this one as it was told to me (way before my time)......
TRUE STORY!
VJ day, August 15, 1945. My family is having a huge party. Several family members have already been discharged from the military (including my dad) and there were a few family and friends attending in uniform as they were still active duty. My Uncle Joe was recently released from the hospital after spending a year in a coma as a result of a B-24 crash. During the jovial event, him and my dad came up with a devious practical joke.....
My dad had a talent for mechanical and electrical devices. Eventually he would go on and work almost 50 years as an auto mechanic. Anyway he and my uncle constructed a PA hookup to the house radio set. Sometime during the party they ran a microphone wire to the adjoining room. As the party continued my uncle eventually snuck into the room and turned on the microphone. Pretending to be a news reporter the following blared out from the radio....
"NEWSFLASH - THE JAPANESE HAVE JUST RE-ATTACKED THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER STRATEGIC POSITIONS IN THE PACIFIC! WE ARE AT WAR AGAIN! ALL PERSONNEL ON LEAVE, REPORT TO YOUR UNITS, ALL RECENTLY DISCHARGED PERSONNEL REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST RECRUITING STATION."
The whole apartment went into mayhem! Women starting crying, the men were in disbelief! One guy wanted to jump out a 6 story window! Seeing the panic he caused, my uncle calmed everyone down. As my uncle fessed up to the bad joke, the only thing that preventing the party goers from beating him senseless was he was still in a back brace.....
60 years later when the family gets together they could now laugh at a bad joke......
__________________ "IF ITS RED OR DUSTY, DON'T TOUCH IT" | |
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07-12-2005, 05:19 PM
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#45 | | "Shooter"
Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Moorpark, CA
Posts: 12,891
Country: | Oh man! That was a cruel joke. But it is funny now.
__________________ http://www.vg-photo.com Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free. Lt Col Honner DSO MC, 39th Commander speaking of the dead from the battle of Kokoda. | |
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