Quote Originally Posted by irishrob View Post
Most excellent. My Grandad was in the horse cavalry before he went to Europe in WWI and when I was a youngster I used to bug him about what he did in the Army because I was drawn to his horse tatoos. He really never gave me any straight history and was always kind of vague but his brother, my great unncle, told my Dad that Grandad came back from Europe a "different man" and it was over 40 years later that he would let a firearm into the house. I guess all the men in the family have inherited similar genes. My Dad never had much to say about what he did in WWII. Mostly what I learned came from overhearing conversations when he got together with a couple of his Army buds and from reading a history of his Cactus Division and finding the write ups for some citations and medals that he had that I found after his passing. Come to think of it I haven't ever told my son much of my experiences, but I have written an essay which I will share with him when he has a son.

Rob
Thanks for sharing that Rob.
My 2nd cousin was a 3-war vet (WWII - Merrill's Marauders, Korea - ?, 'Nam - 101st Abn). I know a little about his combat service, but all he'd ever really say was "whomever said war was hell only scratched the surface".

I tried to convince him to write it down, don't know if he ever did. Now it's too late, he lives in Florida & suffers from Alzheimer's

Where he lives there was a "community" of WWII-era Marauders & Rangers. I was told they all use to gather regularly for coffee once a week. My, I wish I could've been a fly on the wall!