Our Fathers

[shortleg]

     I just went with a friend to visit his Dad. He is 89 and still
 as sharp as a tack. I always come away with such respect
 for all the depresion babys.
    What I thought was great was no complants about pains
 or life. Olg guy was just happy to see us and go for a beer
and shoot the the time away.
   Well here is a thank you to our fathers and the lesons learned.
                 Shortleg[Dave]

[Dubsvalk]

I have many thoughts about my dad.  But the one I remember most is him sitting on a Fatboy in a Dealership a few months before I lost him.  He loved to ride and I wish I had him back so I could ride with him now.  A W.Va. coal miner with a six grade education.  Worked hard every day, never complained, kept his family clothed, fed, warm and dry.  A great man, a great father, a great Christian and human being!
Dubs

[rmrc51]

Just lost my Dad 4 months ago yesterday. Miss him so much!

[Jess Tolbirt]

my dad was 56 when we lost him, I never had a bad life growing up,,some times we ate pinto beans and corn bread but we always had a roof over our heads...2 of my fondest memories was when i was about 10 we rode his harley to the beach, it caught fire in the air cleaner,,he pulled it off and threw it down and we climed abord and continued on,, i sat in front of him on the tank,,, the other one was when he had me puttin spark plugs in his race car,,,driving up hwy 288 from angleton tx to houston about 45 miles,,i was sitting on the front wheel of the race car on the trailer while he was driving to the track,,,God i miss my Dad!!! and my Mother,,,

[hubcapsc]

[czuch]

10/28/88. My Dad lost to prostate cancer that had gone wild. He was only 57.
He was a history teacher and a reserve Army Officer. Lieutenant, to Lt.Col in the reserves!
Anyway, we would spend his reserve pay on the most wonderful vacations through out the western US. He was stationed in Germany in the 50's and took Mom on their honeymoon through Holland, Belgium and Germmany on a Zundapp 650 with a side car. It still had the mounting plate for the machine gun.  Missin you baaaad Dad.

[R J]

I think of my dad every once in awhile.

Lost him on Iwo Jima, he was a Jarhead Cpl.

That same year ON MY 13th BIRTHDAY, went hunting squirrels with my grand father.  He set down under a tree, went to sleep and never woke up.   I haven't really put my heart into hunting after that.

Think about them both, and also all the fun we had together for a very short time.

Been too damn long ago for my rememberer, but I think it was February 20, 1945 that dad took his last breath.   I was a whopping 12 years old.

I've searched a few times for where the KIA's were buried, so far no real good leads.     If I can locate him, I'd like to put him in the Iowa Veterans Cemetery.

I think mom said he was in Charley Company, but don't remember the division or Battalion.     All I really know for sure was he was aboard one of the 880 ships that left Hawaii 40 days prior to the fire fight on Iwo.   He and mom had a code worked out due to censorship, that let her know where he was or where he was headed in his letters.

[sidecarrick]

 My dad passed Sept 30, 2000. I'd trade places with him in a second just so my grandkids could have the pleasure and benefits of knowing him. I should have been a better son. 

[bigguy]

Lost my dad August 23, 1980. My son was born December 10 of 1980. Dad knew a baby (my first born) was on the way, but we didn't know the gender at that time.
I was back in my home town in 1981 for a visit. I stopped by the cemetery on the way out of town. I was holding my son's tiny hands as he learned to walk. Suddenly, seeing my son stand at my fathers headstone it hit me hard. My son has grown up fascinated by his grandfather, possibly because of the awe in which I hold him. He was a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. He was a Green Beret, station 100 miles south of the Fulda Gap during the Kennedy assassination and the Cuban Missile crises. We got many phone calls during that time telling us dad would not be home that night. We never knew when we'd see him again.
Dad would not approve of me being bitter about his death, and I've not been for the most part. The one thing I am bitter about is when I think of how much he and my son would have loved each other. They would have been the best of buddies. Dad would have taken him hunting and fishing. They would have taken my sail boat out to the lake when I couldn't. I could have met them there when I got off work.
I'm proud of my son. He is a good an honorable man. But how much more could my dad's influence could have done. For that, I am bitter.
I'd like to think that there are still men like my dad in the world. I don't see one running for office, running a business or bank. I don't hear his attitude in the conservative right wing ranting that passes for political discourse now-a-days. Nor do I hear it from the left. Dad was conservative on some issues and liberal on others. Dads views came from an inner moral compass that was not amenable to pressure from peers, preachers, friends and neighbors or bosses. His view could and often did change in light of new information. He was far more concerned about right and wrong than dogma. Cheering the country on in an immoral act is not patriotism, it's cowardice. Standing by your country, just like standing by your family, sometimes requires the courage to face it's dissatisfaction and calling it back to the right path. Vietnam was such a situation. He loved his country and the service. He was determined to do all he could to be sure that no one, ever again would sully it's honor, or damage our military with such an inconvenienced, action based on such immoral motives.
I don't remember anybody who ever had the courage to stand in his presence and question his patriotism. Many mouthed behind his back, but not to his face. I guess that 10+ years in the Special Forces left a mark that warned them off. Considering all this man had done and been, questioning his loyalty would have been stupid beyond description. Dad loved his country far more than any leader, and had no trouble calling them out when he believed they were wrong.
   

[Bonzo]

RJ, I was touched by your post and how you lost your Dad in Iwo Jima. My Dad served in WWII and was an Army medic in the invasion of Okinawa. He was one of the lucky ones, he came home. When I was young, the magnitude of that service escaped me. Dad, maybe 5'8" 160, a magazine editor not your classic tough guy. Then I read about that war in the Pacific, the brutality of it and all its horrors. I asked him about what it was like and he spent an hour or two recounting his experiences.
I was dumbstruck at what he said.  We never talked about it again. These guys and gals, our "Greatest Generation" truly were the "Tough Guys". Yes I miss my Dad, but I know he and Mom are together now.

[FloridaValkRyder]

I'd like to think that there are still men like my dad in the world.

I apologize for editing your post but it seems after reading your post there still are men like that......You. 

[BigAl]

Great Thread.

AL

[Bama Red]

Dad died July 13, 1989 at age 78. Twenty-two years ago and I miss him every day. He never got to meet his four great-granddaughters or see me retire from a successful career. He was a patriot and when he wound up doing his WW II Army service as the Army's liaison officer at an American Car & Foundry Plant producing Sherman tanks, he was very disappointed when he didn't get to see any action. He stayed in the Army Reserves after the war and when Korea came along, he immediately asked his CO to let him go on active duty and was soon headed to Korea. He saw action in the defense of the Pusan Perimeter and several other actions during his time in-country. He came home on my sixth birthday!

If i turn out to be half the man he was, I will consider my life a smashing success.

[Momz]

My father passed away in 1999 at the age of 89. Prostate cancer spred so fast it only took a month before the initial diagnosis until his passing.

He came to this country in 1951, met my mother in 1952 and they were married six weeks later. My mother was also an immigrant that came here in 1949. They were both Croatian/German and grew up on either side of the Danube river, just kiliometers apart.

My mother repeatedly escaped the concentration camps and returned with food for the starving children that were to weak or sick to escape. My father was recruited into the Austrian army when he be came 18, after a two year stint, he was then recruited into the Hungarian infantry for two more years. Borders changed often in those days (after all that was were WWI started).

During WWII the german SS came into my fathers town, gathered up all the old, infirm, and anyone with disabilities, jewish or gypy heritage and sent them to the concentration camps to be eliminated. All healthy males with a german background were forced into the german military.

My father did what he needed to survive, but he knew that his former life was gone and eventually allowed himself to be captured and sent to a POW camp in Marseilles France. His fathers brothers all immigrated to the US and Canada during the the first WWI. So he had an uncle in NJ that sponsered him to come to the US through the Red Cross.

My fathers uncle knew some other immigrant families in OH and they gathered for a long weekend in Cleveland. This is were my parents met and were almost immediatlely smitten. Six weeks later they were married at St. Barbaras Catholic Church in Dearborn MI on January 3rd 1953.

We grew up poor, both my parents worked various jobs and they had one very sick child in the hospital for 9 months (me). I also have a younger brother and we never realized  how poor we were because our parents would never complain about what others had that we had to do without. Instead they said we were Americans and needed to understand world history and politics because if we understood that we will be able to chose our futures. And always believe that God will answer your prayers if you are not selfish.

I miss both my parents so much, but I have them to thank that I'm still here today.

[shortleg]

  The picture I posted was of my Dad on Iwo taken by Stars and Stripes
    I found it when I went through his green wooden footlocker.
             Shortleg[Dave]

[Cruzen]

My Dad is still around and at the young age of 90 he is more active than I.  Yes, he is the Dad who Had 1.  Little did he realize that about 45 years or so after trading in his 55 he would get the chance to drive another one.  I get more comments on the plate than on the car.

He gets out weekly and visits the few remaining brothers and in-laws and my sister and his friends.  He does not complain at all except about stupid politicians but then who doesn’t.   He was with the 83rd and got shot up in France and got his purple heart.  He did not have enough points to be discharged so after recuperation despite the fact that he did not have full use of his left arm they sent him back.  He has undergone three surgery’s for shrapnel removal.  

Now get this, he was hit three times in the left side and left arm with large caliber.  The last surgery which was 2 years ago they picked shrapnel that had moved through his body to his right hand.  In the 1980's they removed a chunk from his chest that had moved and was closing off an artery.  

During WWII there were 7 houses on the street that my dad lived.  Three on his side and four, including that of my future mom on the other side.  Dad and three of his brothers served in WWII.  Mom had four brothers that served and the other five houses sent 10 boys.  A total of 18 from one block.  One block of one street.  All but two came back and my dad and another neighbor came back with some unwanted souvenirs.   I never let him forget that we do remember and are thankful for what they all went through and how it changed their lives forever.   Once he got over the nightmares which took till the 1970’s we had his purple heart mounted and framed and it’s in his den.

Every year when he comes out to visit me during spring training, besides riding around in the ole Chevy, we sit for hours and I listen to him tell stores about the past.  Sometimes I accidentally start a recording device which he does not know is going.  I’ll listen to the recordings again if I should outlive him. I would suggest if you have the opportunity to do the same.

Last year when Dad was out here we took him to a western town.  Dad posed for a photo with one of the cowboy street actors.  The guy said to dad, we’re going to have a gun fight here in about ten minutes.  Dad looked up at him and without missing a beat said “I’m going to have to borrow one of yours because I left mine at home.” The cowboy was speechless. 

[shortleg]

 I have two notebooks full of the events as told to me by my Dad.
I also have one from my uncle that served with the 8TH air force during WWII
over europe.
   Dad served in WWII Korea and Viet Nam. Don,t know how
he returned to a life at home.
            Shortleg[Dave]

[olddog1946]

Lost my father when he was only 51..went through the war in the Navy, was an underwater demolition diver..survived Normandy, etc..He was killed while testing out a Cessna 180 that a friend and he were going to buy..turns out the mechanic that did the annual on the plane left some tools in the wing and they severed the control cables..Never did tell mom that, wouldn't have brought him back...I love finding old pics of him and mom, brings back some good memories.