I enjoy reading and watching WWII books and movies, well, most military books for that matter, what I find most interesting about military books (currently reading) is the men and women that are making life and death decisions and their either my age or younger, and some are responsible for hundreds of lives, for example I recently just finished Maj. Dick Winters (Commander of 506th PIR. “Band of Brothers”) book, he was my age at the time and responsible for a battalion of men, that’s hundreds of lives, granted it’s circumstances that I’ll probably never truly understand or experience, but non the less it’s leadership lessons at a level that you can’t learn from some dude’s book that got a degree in being the boss, it’s reading how these individuals handle extreme pressure.
I always knew that my grandpa was in WWII, but never really knew what all he did, I’m still trying to discover what exactly he did during the war, I’ve even seen his dress uniform jacket, still in great shape, but tonight I’m even a little closer, my Aunt sent me this picture of his military graduation class, it’s just awesome seeing what I read about, watch movies about and see history channel shows about, my grandfather in the middle of it in uniform getting ready to head to Europe… or maybe the Pacific? That’s the best part, I’m still learning, he past away when I was a kid, before I became really interested in WWII history, so I never got the opportunity to ask him what he did, or to see if he was willing to talk about it. I’ve heard stories from my father, but nothing really giving me what unit he was in or regiment. I’m am excited though, my same Aunt that sent this picture is sending me some more pictures of him in the military, I can’t wait to see them.
Recently I learned that a buddy from the road, his grandfather was in the WWII pacific theater, he wrote a book about his time in the pacific, (he’s also going to be one of the characters in the new “Band of Brothers” type HBO series called “Pacific“) the stories that I’ve heard about this guy from his grandson, he’s a pretty amazing person, I can’t wait till his book comes out.
I’m jealous that he has, one his grandfather still around, and two that his grandfather is willing to tell his story about his time in WWII, that generation is so intriguing.
If you get a chance check out the link for his book, it comes out at the beginning of March.
