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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Dec 13, 2019 21:49:29 GMT
A couple others My first wife's uncle was on the Bataan Death March. Spent the war in a Japanese prison camp. Every day for four years, he was beaten twice a day. He was a bit nutty and I can't blame him. My current wifes great great grandfather named the famous Bucktails. The 13th Pennsylvania Reserves in the US Civil War. He was mustered in, was walking down the street and cut the tail off a deer hanging in a butcher shop. The commanding officer, Thomas Kane, seen it and thought it looked cool. Soon everyone had one. The Rebels hated facing the Bucktails
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Post by llanwydd on Jan 13, 2020 3:32:30 GMT
I had a great uncle who took pictures of the USS Hornet being attacked in the Pacific in 1942. I had another great uncle who landed on the beach at Normandy and would not talk about it for the rest of his life. Interestingly, I never had any relatives in Viet Nam. I, myself, have never been close to a world-changing event. The closest I can think of is I was less than fifty miles away from John Lennon when he was shot. I was a full 300 miles away from 9/11. Racking my brain right now. I might be back...
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Post by hi224 on Jan 13, 2020 3:40:22 GMT
I had a great uncle who took pictures of the USS Hornet being attacked in the Pacific in 1942. I had another great uncle who landed on the beach at Normandy and would not talk about it for the rest of his life. Interestingly, I never had any relatives in Viet Nam. I, myself, have never been close to a world-changing event. The closest I can think of is I was less than fifty miles away from John Lennon when he was shot. I was a full 300 miles away from 9/11. Racking my brain right now. I might be back... so you are in east coast as well.
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Post by bravomailer on Jan 13, 2020 4:38:51 GMT
A guy in my battalion at Ft Meade stole a helicopter and landed it on the White House. Didn't know him. A few months later a guy I dimly knew in high school crashed his car through the White House gates, proclaimed himself the messiah, and claimed he had dynamite strapped to his chest. Turned out to be road flares. Both lived to tell the tale. Both would be riddled with lead if they did it today.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 14, 2020 3:50:39 GMT
A German army unit, size depends on the telling, surrendered to my uncle. He was a combat engineer on guard duty when a German unit approached up unexpected, the officer surrendered to him, and they tossed their rifles and other weapons into a pile which my uncle later demoed. It was very near the end of the war.
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Post by Sulla on Jan 14, 2020 8:57:45 GMT
A guy in my battalion at Ft Meade stole a helicopter and landed it on the White House. Didn't know him. Now there's an interesting story which I've never heard. And sure enough, there's a wiki page for it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_White_House_helicopter_incidentThis is my favorite part... "Some 300 rounds were fired, but only five hit Preston, causing superficial wounds. He exited the helicopter and started running towards the White House, but was tackled to the ground by Secret Service agents. Handcuffed, Preston was taken to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for overnight treatment, where he arrived smiling and "laughing like hell."
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Post by JHA Durant on Jan 14, 2020 11:57:47 GMT
My grandfather on my mother's side landed at Gallipoli in the early hours of 25th of April 1915 with his brothers (he had three, all were sent to Europe to fight and at least two were there with him, depending on who's telling). Not only did they survive Gallipoli, they survived the entire war. Granddad was also in the Battle of Beersheba in 1917 and was among the men who charged their horses towards the Ottomans.
Some other ancestors of mine on my father's side had shares on Archer, the first winner of the Melbourne Cup.
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Post by enigma72 on Mar 1, 2020 17:27:05 GMT
I hope if I liked your post and it was tragic, you realize I love the history of it. Not the tragedy. Very interesting relations.
With the Coronavirus in the news, i have a connection to the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 to 1920. My paternal grandparents died with that flu. So tragic
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Post by kls on Mar 1, 2020 23:08:38 GMT
I was in my first year high school when JFK was assassinated. I was in attendance at the 1968 Democratic convention as a spectator which broke out into a police riot. I was drafted into the US Army in 1969, the same year Americans landed on the moon. I was born the day of the riots in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic convention.
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Post by Pangolin on Mar 2, 2020 14:00:52 GMT
My great grandfather was mistaken for an Armenian and chased by Turks with machetes during the Armenian Genocide. He escaped by hiding in a shop keeper's wicker basket. What was he actually? Greek?
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