My Grandfather drove a DUKW in the Mariana Islands during WWII - To him and all the other combat vets out there, Happy Veterans Day!
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🫡 WE’VE GOT THE BEST VETS 🪖
Last summer I rode in one of these at the Wisconsin Dells. They can haul ass for such a heavy piece of equipment.
Big respect to your grandfather; I've been to Guam and Saipan, can't imagine the hell of war there back in the day.
Thanks for posting. Amazing! Thank you to your grandpa!
Don't forget to put out your flag today.
I don't put it away to begin with.
I wish it wasn’t raining..
Fly it everyday!
Wow. What a hero!!
God Bless your Grandfather! Amazing that they survived! Did he ever talk about his service?
We have an Italian friend who owns a DUKW and had it trucked to Normandy for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. We rode up & down the Normandy Coast from Utah Beach to Pegasus Bridge for over a week. And took it out into the water at Utah Beach and at another Beach drove all the way out to the British Mulberry's...it was glorious! Always mindful that no one was shooting at us. Only saw 3 US WWII Vet's and 1 British Vet...15 years earlier they were EVERYWHERE... now there are very few remaining. 💔
God Bless my late Father-in-Law who was a Paratrooper who made a combat jump in southern France as part of Operation Dragoon and fought his way through the Bulge.
We owe them Everything! 🙏🇺🇸
Those are all great stories! God bless your family for their service.
Like most combat Marines, not much. Over the years he eventually shared a few.
One was about an encounter with his DUKW. Said they rolled up on a beach that had been previously cleared. There was a lot of tropical jungle just beyond the beach. They came under heavy fire and had to abandon the DUKW and head for the trees and make their way back to camp by foot.
The next morning they went back to retrieve it. Said it was riddled with bullet holes. If I recall correctly, he said they counted something like 137 bullet holes. Said it started right up and he drove it back to camp where they patched it back up.
I'm glad he finally talked about it...some never do. What a terrifying experience! I'm not surprised it started right up. I was amazed about how fast the DUKW hauled s$$ down the French coast!
We tried to get to the Cemetery on D-Day to see POTUS speak at the Ceremony but all roads were blocked so we went to lunch on the patio at a restaurant on Omaha Beach and saw a huge convoy of Ospreys heading towards us from the Cemetery and I jumped up and told my husband, "there's Trump's convoy!" Started videotaping and EVERYONE on the patio (Americans, French, Italians, Belgians & British) ALL jumped up & down with their cellphones taking photos, waving and cheering! Don't let anyone tell you Europeans hate Trump...they LOVE him passionately and speak openly about it! A fantastic thing to witness!
great stories guys i'm jealous. all i know of my grandpas is one crewed a PBY. the other one toted a BAR and the jerries didn't like him at all.
My Uncle Kenny landed the night before D-Day, crawled through enemy lines in the dark with his Ranger buddies, and while men like your Grandfather were landing the next morning, he attacked the Nazis from behind.
Fucking RESPECT.
I get a frog in my throat when I think about the generations we have come from.
We are NOT descended from cowardly men, anons! We have a lot to live up to.
(Edit: I had to edit my post for historical accuracy. Also, that's technically my "great-uncle" btw for anons doing math, but everybody in the fam just knew him as 'Uncle Kenny')
Some great role models that generation!
My Grandfather was in the Navy for the Korean War. On his final Memorial Day he opened to me and my dad about it.
He said he had to operate a gate on a landing craft while under fire (we were given no details of the battle or location), and every time he pulled the lever and dropped the gate, he got to watch some of his buddies get mowed down.
He said, "It felt like I was killing all my buddies." Exact words.
That was the only time in his life he told that story out loud, far as my dad and I know. It was a heck of a "war is Hell" moment.
I think my Grandpa died wondering whether his buddies' death really helped stop communism, or whether they died getting mixed up in some nonsense on the other side of the world that we didn't have any business in. I wonder too - I haven't done too much diving into the ins and outs of the Korean War.
That was 2013 when he told me that. Thank God he doesn't have to see what America's going through now, but if he was here I know he'd be telling us to press in harder.
We absolutely need to learn that generation's strength, bravery, resiliency, determination, discipline, character and honor. But we need to question our leaders more than they did. And right now, more than ever, we need a military that serves the American people.
....Wow. Thanks for the opportunity to write that, fren. Didn't know I needed to.
o7
Well, since we're all comparing our predecessors' war stories, one of my uncles ran a landing craft in the Pacific during WWII, delivering Marines to their destinations.
My father was a bombardier in a B-25.
Neither of them talked much about what they'd been through.
My father worked on that project! He worked on organizing the units that were to use amphibious vehicles in the South Seas during WWII. He was an officer in the Marines. What an awesome photo!
Such a cool connection!
That’s just a stock pic from the internet. I have some pics of him deployed, but none with one of his DUKW’s unfortunately.
Thank you. He died in 1966, so I really don't know too much of his history in the service. But my brother told me that Dad had told them the Marines had 5 divisions and he was working on the creation of the 6th that utilized the amphibious vehicles.
My grandfather made me stand still for one minute, by his side, for Liberation day. He never talked about what he did during WW2. But he was an accountant in post-war days.
The Resistance Banker is a jolly good movie. BTW.
Always wanted a mobile-home/winnebago version of one of those....
God bless your brave grandfather and all other veterans today.
My grandpa fought in the Philippines during WW2 and my great-grandfather rode a motorcycle to spy on Germans during WW1. I'm always proud to talk about them, too.
If he is still with you, tell him Thank You for his service & sacrifice please!
My father, husband & son are also Veterans.
Thank you to all Veterans, for your sacrifice & service!
Awesome! I was born in the Mariannas Islands. Said many prayers.
My grandfather was doin the exact same thing, anon!
There is a good chance they met!
both my parents were in WW2, my mom was a nurse stateside and my dad was in the Pacific with the Navy....long gone, safely in heaven away from this crazy world...
I have lots of relatives who served....
but my dear oldest brother died yesteday, on Marine Corp day, from parkinsons related aspiration pneumonia which ravaged his body.....he was a young Marine in Nam and was greatly affected by agent orange.....grew into a fine,upstanding and successful man with a good family and he died much too young....
thankyou to all you vets, including my hubby is out hunting right now......somebody had to step up and you did....
someday, somehow, we will stop sending our young people out to these wars, many that were the "rich man's trick".....
God Bless your brother.
o7
o7
mods, can you remove this? there are too many white people in the image.