Comments on: He was a soldier.

By: MichaelG

MichaelG — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:32:56 +0000

Been scanning back issues of Readers Digest, eh, Jeff?

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:19:07 +0000

Hello back to Dorothy, who works in the second most quaint and charming village in Ohio! Always nice to wander through Kenyon College, once home to Paul Newman, Jonathan Winters, and Allison Janney, and a really fine bookshop even if it is a shadow of its former self — these are hard times for bookstores.

I recall there are a number of fans of pareidolia and apophenia around these parts: my friend the curator of archaeology for Ohio just sent me this trailer, knowing i’d find it weirdly compelling — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SwElYy7F9A — i suspect many of you will, too.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:07:08 +0000

Small Town News
We had a reunion yesterday for anyone who attended the old township schools of East and West Richland and Corunna schools of DeKalb County, Indiana. All those schools were abandoned in 1967; I last attended in 1959.
It was the best reunion I have ever been to—reunited with my best friend from my young boyhood who I last saw exactly fifty years ago, and many more I had not seen in over forty years. It is amazing, my old friend and I started yakking and laughing just as if it was fifty days gone by and not a half-century.
The idea was hatched just a couple months ago via internet chitchat, and a search yielded my old pal’s work email address, as he was involved in a newsworthy research project which provided a work contact email addy. Nobody can hide in this age!
Most reunions are OK, then you clean the picnic tables and forget about it—not this one.

By: Jolene

Jolene — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:31:45 +0000

Great observations, MichaelG, and subsequently confirmed by a cousin who just retired from the Navy. He noticed the same things you did, but you described them more interestingly. You got the badge on his sleeve right too. Dad was, indeed, in the First Armored Division.

MaryRC: The experience you described is very similar to my Dad’s A Midwestern farm boy, he went overseas on the Queen Mary in May, 1942 before it was converted to a troopship, disembarked in Scotland, trained in Ireland and England. He was operating the equipment your father was repairing, so didn’t have as much time to get to know the British Isles. His unit sailed for North Africa in November 1942. In all, he was overseas two years–May, 1942 – June, 1944.

By: MaryRC

MaryRC — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:28:48 +0000

My dad was a mechanic with the air force in WW II and he had a great time. He was stationed in England and managed to travel all over England and Scotland on his leaves. My mom lived in a little whistle-stop town and on weekends she and her girlfriends would take the train into the city and hand out coffee and doughnuts to departing soldiers at the train station. One day a train passed through her little town with cars full of Australian troops (what they were doing here, I don’t know) and the train stopped to let the soldiers stretch their legs. Everyone made a fuss over them — so far from home. It’s strange to think of young men like my dad and the Australian troops who in the normal course of their lives would probably have never gone far from home, but suddenly they’re on a troopship bound for England.

By: coozledad

coozledad — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:25:42 +0000

Completely falsified tallies. A gift for the righties here, as well as there. Big oil is coming in its pants. We’ll be seeing a whole lot more Sarah Palin junkets.
http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html

By: 4dbirds

4dbirds — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:54:13 +0000

Jolene, when I was in the army, formal pictures were taken in basic training about four or five weeks in, also during specialized training schools and later each time I was up for promotion. (There was some controversy about this because one’s record should speak for itself so what did it matter what we looked like? It was especially irritating to women since we were required to wear skirts not our dress slacks.)

By: MichaelG

MichaelG — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:40:01 +0000

A little trouble with the edit function there. Probably a loose nut behind the wheel.

By: MichaelG

MichaelG — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:34:42 +0000

Jolene, you have the pictures backwards. I can’t speculate on the occasion of the first picture. To my knowledge there was never any picture taking to mark one’s discharge but this is not a basic training picture. Several things. He is a corporal, he has several ribbons and he is sporting a unit patch. Looks like the First Armored Division maybe, but I’m not a tread head. He is also wearing his uniform like he belongs in it. The one on the right would be from basic. No rank (he’s a slick sleeve), no unit identification, no decorations. Also the uniform just doesn’t look right on him yet. He and the uniform too newly acquainted. Nice pictures. He looks like a great guy.

By: Julie Robinson

Julie Robinson — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:11:25 +0000

I was busy yesterday but I loved all the letters. Here’s another great source: War Letters, gathered by Andrew Carroll. There are letters from the Civil War onward, both from the battlefield and on the homefront. They are historically informative and often wrenching. I also highly recommend the audio version, which uses a range of professional actors. It will bring to you to tears multiple times.