With tomorrow being Dec.7th, I thought it might be interesting to start a thread for members to post old family photos of those days.
We have all seen the documentaries and newsreel footage of the events, but it might be just as interesting to see those old photos that dad or grand dad took overseas or right here at home. A more personal perspective on the biggest event of the 20th century.

If you feel like sharing, break open that old photo album and post them here.......or even just your memories of the folks who lived those events.
The Greatest Generation has almost passed into the sunset, wouldn't it be nice to see things through their eyes as it really was?
And remember to shake the hand of a WWII vet if you can tomorrow, if not .....thank any vet you can.

 

Well,Grandpa passed almost a year ago,WW2 vet,but i don't have any pictures to share,my mother might,but she doesn't live close and is not computer literate so I couldn't post them here in a timely manner. I do have the memories though!!

 

my grandpa was in ww2 he died when i was 14 he was infantry and a motor pool mechanic he was in europe and finished his time in the pacific he was 92 years old when he died but one hell of a guy i wish i had pics

 

My Dad served in WWII, in the US Navy.

Dad wound up at Newport News Shipyard about mid-way through the war, helping to wire the USS Essex and the USS Hornet.
(Dad was an Electrician's Mate.)

He was then assigned to "Amphibious Warfare" and LSM 185. (1944.)
The LSM (Landing Ship Medium) was picked up at Charleston, SC and the shake-down was in the Chesapeake Bay.
From there, they went to San Diego and on to Pearl Harbor (Dad's second time at Pearl! He was stationed there when Pearl Harbor was attacked!)
The trip from San Diego to Pearl Harbor took 30 days!!! The LSM would 'cruise' (if you could call it that) at 8 knots and max speed (advertised) was 12 knots!!!

Here's Dad's crew on the LSM. (I scanned Dad's 'official crew' photo and re-sized.)
(Dad is on the upper level, 'squatting', 4th from the left, with his hands around the rail 'stanchion'.)



And LSM 185 at Leyte:

The photo at Leyte was sent to me by another crewmember's Grand-Son.

 

Thank You, Keith!...... thats what I am talking about!
My mom has Grandads photos of Italy as he "toured" the Italian countryside, just behind (and sometimes ahead) of the German army.
I hope she will agree to let them be posted.

 

What an awesome idea!!! I love old photos!!!

 

I will ask my mom if she has any of the pictures of their liberation from Santo Tomas in Manila scanned into her computer.
If she can email some to me I'll post them tomorrow.

 

I need to try and get some photo's of my Dad during the Korean War. He served in the Coast Guard at 16, underaged, like many young men did back then. Afterwards he went in to the Army and eventually in to the 101st Airborne at the end of WWII, afterwards became a part of the 187th Infantry paratroopers, and made several jumps in Korea. He made rank of SSgt, but was knocked from rank for beating up some S. Koreans for stealing goods from U.S. Supply trucks while he was on night watch, or so the story goes. I want to find his military records, but they were destroyed in a fire, and have been going back and forth with the D.o.D. to get his records send to me. He passed away Jan of 2004 and is buried at the Dallas Ft. Worth National Cemetary.

 

The photo below is of my father, a sargeant on the right, and his best buddy on the left. The first time I saw this photo was in 2003 and it was a print in bad shape. The photo was taken in early December 1944 on Leyte. My father is 18 and his buddy is 22 and a farm boy from Kansas. That is a parrot that his buddy is holding and my father tells me that birds would just come fly up to him when he held his arm out. A few weeks late his best friend was killed in the mountains of Leyte. My father said he died a horrible death and says no more. My father survived and did a 1 year stint in Japan as part of MacArthur's security although he does not like MacArthur. I took the print my father had and had it restored as best as possible before making copies. One for him, my brother, my sister and myself. One was also made for his best buddy's son who was born in 1944 and never saw his dad. My father had contact and sent him an 8x10 of his father.

Second photo is my father last year at 83, with his second wife, holding his fourth grandchild, my first son. He was absolutely thrilled to be a Grandfather again. He is still kicking at 84 1/2.

 

HOME PORT - Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet Museum
Looking through some old WWII stuff after reading some of these posts, I came across the USS Hornet. They have a live aboard day, where you sleep on the ship one night, I think that's pretty awesome. However, for those of you who served on such ships, probably not as entertaining. Ha, I'm just a military buff I guess, never lived it, unfortunately.

 

Yeah, cool link, but if you look at it at work, you need to know that the radio conversation (splashdown of Apollo 11 and the USS Hornet) comes on automatically and I couldn't find a way to mute it. Make sure your speakers are turned down, or be aware that your computer may start talking.

 

For more in depth pictures of the ship you could use my link as I have access all over the ship during my volunteer work. Live aboard is very popular during the weekends down there. I, myself, usually spend the Friday night on the ship before Living Ship Saturday. Then spend Saturday running the aircraft elevator with Tom. I bunk up in the Island where the Admiral's Chief of Staff would have been. Unlike all those on OS1 and Deck 2 I have my own head. Chief of Staff restored after 1 year of work clearing out rust from water leaks peeling paint from Nixon's visit and asbestos. During scrapping I discovered ship yard calculations in pencil on a main bulkhead under all the decades of paint among other things.

USS HORNET CV12/CVA12/CVS12

I have met quite a few WWII sailors who served on the Hornet. That was in 1998-2002 and it is less and less each time I am down there. Most all have good memories of the ship since it was never touched during her WWII service. The guys are thrilled to see her once again and the places they inhabited. This is in contrast to my father, who was a combat soldier, who doesn't recount anything except three small excerpts dealing with his friend, good coffee on an LST and monkey brains in Japan.

 

I had an assignment similar to this thread way back in high school and I was the only kid in the class that couldn't bring anything. My grandfather had three brothers. They all enlisted, drawing straws for different branches so they wouldn't get killed together. They all survived. My Grandpa served in the Marine Corp at Guam. One of my Great Uncles went on to become a pilot and flew at the end of WWII over Europe, then over Korea, and finally a few missions over Vietnam. He was the last survivor of the 4 brothers and passed away about 10 years ago now. I didn't really get to know any of them, as 2 passed away a long time ago, & my grandpa passed in the late 90s. My grandmother vividly remembers Pearl Harbor though.

My grandpa was wounded by a grenade and sent home after a year in the Pacific.

 

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far!
Lets keep this going!

 

Great thread Dave!

Thanks to everyone for sharing the photos. That's good stuff right there.