Some WWII stuff i found

[Lttr Prssd]

That Bukowski book is awesome. A real piece of printing and bookmaking. Look up Loujon Press for some history about the two (husband and wife) that put that and many other cool books out back in the day.

[mistersmith]

I was just about to say that about the Bukowski, only with less specifics, so thanks for beating me to a better post.

All my grandfather's awesome Navy stuff was lost/stolen/destroyed while he hid his Alzheimer's from us...it really sucks...so congrats Andy for having all that stuff. Those newspapers are so fucking cool.

[andydiesel]

Originally Posted by mistersmith

I was just about to say that about the Bukowski, only with less specifics, so thanks for beating me to a better post.

All my grandfather's awesome Navy stuff was lost/stolen/destroyed while he hid his Alzheimer's from us...it really sucks...so congrats Andy for having all that stuff. Those newspapers are so fucking cool.

i have a lot more stuff too WWII stuff too.

i also have a great reel to reel tape of when my grandfather went undercover in the largest KKK group in Indiana with his reporting partner to expose them. truly creepy shit. he and his partner on the story won some sort of Pulitzer for it.

[judge]

After my dad passed away we found his mission journal from WWII. He was a B-24 tail gunner in the Army aircorp stationed in England. Mostly missions over Germany. Photos too of bombs dropping. A bunch of other interesting momentos. He really never spoke of the war.

One of the issues of stars & stripes he had saved had an awesome cartoon. It was for an article about what they could do with military equipment after the war. It had a guy at a ballgame talking on a field phone...WOW--they had no idea how on it they were. next time I go through the stuff I'll scan & post.

There was also a string of currency (paper bills) taped together with a bunch of different soldiers names. A usd taped to a nazi reichmark taped to japanese (what was their currency called then?) taped to another countries currency. I did some research and found out it was some sort of drinking game with the loser buying the round. Figures.

It wasn't until I found this box of stuff did I ever care to read about the war. A great book on the B-24 bombers is 'The Wild Blue'...think it's by McGovern. It definitely temporarily cured my fear of flying, to read what the conditions were on those planes.

Here's some photos & excerpt (I retyped) from his journal:

[steve w]

I love those, Judge.
Wasn't there one where he wrote about having to walk out onto the wing to
fix something during a flight?

[judge]

Originally Posted by steve w

I love those, Judge.
Wasn't there one where he wrote about having to walk out onto the wing to
fix something during a flight?

No...never a wing walker. There's one entry where he was almost out the bailout door because the pilot hit the bail out button to get the crews attention. There was also a mission where one of the crews oxygen cut out & another crew saved the other by finding him & sharing his oxygen.

There's so many crazy stories in such abbreviated form (he really shouldn't have been keeping a journal) that every mission seems to pack a punch. I'm sure every plane that flew had similar stories.

[robschwager]

Those dudes were full-on badass.

I think of them and the sacrifices they made for us every time I do a tour of a Warbird for reference photos, measurements, etc....

[andydiesel]

Originally Posted by judge

After my dad passed away we found his mission journal from WWII. He was a B-24 tail gunner in the Army aircorp stationed in England. Mostly missions over Germany. Photos too of bombs dropping. A bunch of other interesting momentos. He really never spoke of the war.

One of the issues of stars & stripes he had saved had an awesome cartoon. It was for an article about what they could do with military equipment after the war. It had a guy at a ballgame talking on a field phone...WOW--they had no idea how on it they were. next time I go through the stuff I'll scan & post.

There was also a string of currency (paper bills) taped together with a bunch of different soldiers names. A usd taped to a nazi reichmark taped to japanese (what was their currency called then?) taped to another countries currency. I did some research and found out it was some sort of drinking game with the loser buying the round. Figures.

It wasn't until I found this box of stuff did I ever care to read about the war. A great book on the B-24 bombers is 'The Wild Blue'...think it's by McGovern. It definitely temporarily cured my fear of flying, to read what the conditions were on those planes.

Here's some photos & excerpt (I retyped) from his journal:

this is great stuff! I love the mission schedule.

[John]

The remarks section of that Mission document is beautiful prose.

[Brute666]

My wife's grandfather recently passed away. He was in the Army so he received a military burial. Whenever anyone ever asked what he did in the Army he said he was a cook. It wasn't until the funeral while looking up info about his military service that we found out he was a decorated marksman. Guess he just didn't want to talk about it. He was a really cool dude.