What's this "warrior" stuff?

[Lithos]

82. Father in Law was a WW2 medic

Silver star during the Normandy invasion for crawling across a minefield. He was in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. He told me, and only me, about the time he and his best friend were caught in an artillery barrage. The Germans were exploding shells at tree top level for the trees to serve as shrapnel. He jumped out one side of the jeep, his friend the other. A shell exploded, and he looked at his friend and said, "he had disappeared." They had a mental break and spent a year in a hospital in England and suffered from PTSD for the rest of his life.

My grandfather-in-law was a tail gunner in a B17. His bomber helped drop supplies to the Dutch in early 1945. He said he watched the Germans let the Dutch run up and retrieve the supplies. The bombers would only drop when they knew there were Dutch civilians to collect them. The Germans then shot the Dutch to get the supplies. Drank himself to death.

A friend of my father was in Vietnam. He remembers watching people fire at VC from the side of the road and seeing what happens when 50 caliber bullets hit the head and body.

War is hell and no one brags about it.

L-