As WW II fades deeper into the past

[downtownv]

As WW II fades deeper into the past, this link provides some important reminders for all of the people of today.

The link is titled for the Millennials, but I think the audience is bigger than that.

21 phrases from WW II are explained and each has a picture with it.

Worth a read.

http://www.cafe.com/r/9a191b1c-6823-43b8-a665-3595a9a6cf6c/1/21-things-you-should-know-about-world-war-ii

#19 was one my Dad was involved in 33 B-17 missions

89000 GI's died in 1 battle

2.5% of the entire world's population Died during that war.

Could it happen again?
Will it?

[muggsy]

I think that the death toll will be a little higher in WWIII. In WWII we didn't have quite as many nukes.

[downtownv]

I think that the death toll will be a little higher in WWIII. In WWII we didn't have quite as many nukes.

As it needs to be....
Israel, left alone and unsupported, will launch a pre emptive 1st strike an Iran. The game will begin and end, that day.

[marshal kane]

IMO, Americans today are NOT the same Americans that answered the call to defeat the Axis forces in WWII. Those were some tough and resolute citizen soldiers. Over the years, our schools have turned out a "me" population more interested in texting than understanding what it takes to be a patriot. I just hope that I am wrong and that if WWIII comes, our technology will enable us to crush the enemy quickly while playing games on our I Phones. God Bless our armed forces and keep them safe.

[CPTKILLER]

I will guess that most teenagers and adults could score better than 50% if asked about these events much less the details. If not, they need to return to a grade school history class.

[Earle]

Comparing today's soldiers with WWII soldiers is an apple and orange problem. I know quite a few of today's and they're tough individuals. They have to be with the constant rotation of deployments. Their family lives suffer (a lot of them are two soldier families) and we don't really take care of them the way we should when they come back home broken.

To really fight a WWIII, we would have to go back to conscription. There's no other way to produce the manpower required. I don't have a clue as to how today's youths would respond. I've seen a lot of conscription in my life and done my time. My earliest memories are of WWII, probably because I had two older brothers fighting - one a navigator on a 8th Air Force B-17 out of SE England and the other a fighter pilot running sub patrol off south Florida. And, yes, I remember Pearl Harbor - coming home from church that day and huddling around the radio, listening to the description of the destruction and, later, President Roosevelt's talk. I guess that much trauma that young buries itself deep in your brain. Unlike the Viet Nam mess, everyone wanted to fight in WWII. Most volunteered before their numbers were called. But, again, as to how today's youths would respond, I just haven't a clue...

[cohoskip]

IMO, Americans today are NOT the same Americans that answered the call to defeat the Axis forces in WWII. Those were some tough and resolute citizen soldiers. Over the years, our schools have turned out a "me" population more interested in texting than understanding what it takes to be a patriot. I just hope that I am wrong and that if WWIII comes, our technology will enable us to crush the enemy quickly while playing games on our I Phones. God Bless our armed forces and keep them safe.

^^^Exactamundo

[Marine One]

I retired from the Marine Corps on April 1, 2008 (April Fool's Day, go figure). For the most part, the young Marines with whom I came into contact up to the day I retired were impressive. I mentioned during my remarks at my retirement that it took a set of stones to join the military and especially the Corps after 9/11 and especially after we went into Iraq in 2003. Those who joined knew they were joining a Corps of an America that was at war. And most of them were all about it. During my final assignment before retirement, I had a Lance Corporal who was on loan to me from the Wounded Warrior Battalion. Young man got tired of sitting around doing nothing at the Battalion (had been wounded in the arm by a sniper in Habbaniyah, Iraq, near Fallujah) and went to the building next door and started looking for a job. The first open door he came to was mine. His CO was a friend of mine and I called him while the Marine was in my office. He came to work in my section the following day. We had many long talks in my final year in the Corps. He joined out of high school to get away from a bad situation both at home and with his peer group. But he really hoined to be a grunt (a machine gunner) because, in his words, "wanted to go to war."
The longer I was in (30 years, 3 months and 10 days) the more impressed I was with the junior enlisted Marines. They had my utmost confidence. Can't say the same thing for their similarly aged counterparts outside the main gate. From what I've seen, most aren't worth two cents.