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Message: [QUOTE="AZHuskiePop, post: 2733050, member: 1609"] The impact on the country with over 10,000,000 young men away in uniform is impossible for us to comprehend . My dad ‘s was older and had served in the military in the early to mid thirties but with two children on Dec 7, 1941 and me coming shortly thereafter his attempts to re-enlist were followed by death threats from my mom. His younger brother and her three unmarried brothers served and all saw action in the Pacific. One of my uncles never said a word about it but my brother told me he had 8 battle ribbons steering a plywood PT boat. Connecticut was a booming industrial state and almost every last one was converted to some product that was related to the war effort. Thinking of an entire country pulling in the one cause is hard to imagine. Consumer products were almost impossible to obtain. Black market and rationing were real . My dad was an air raid warden and houses were blacked out at night or you could be fined. There was a real fear of getting bombed especially as the Nazi’s seemed unstoppable early. My late brother who was 7 years older recalled his fear of invasion andbeing comforted by an Italian immigrant neighbor about the vast Athlantic . Ocean and how the German lack of a Navy made that impossible. These were real conversations the history books pass over. The craziest thing that in 1942 all men under 65 years of age had to register for a possible homeguard army if needed. The old man’s list. The good news it’s a current source of personal information about men born as early as in the 1870’s especially the immigrants of the great migration. The draft. at its height reached single men up to age 40. I was recently thinking of the WWII Vets I knew many who saw action who suffered from undiagnosed PTSD and were never treated but drank to excess as a form of self medication. The war had ramifications far beyond its end obviously politically but personally as well. I’m as you guessed student of history ( like our new coach my expertise is Middle age Europe)but I’m also a Genealogist . I have interviewed many vets . One of my favorites is a 97 year old in a nursing home who served in the famous 101 st .Airborne He was wounded at the battle of the Bulge and had field surgery that required 140 stitches to close. What he was most proud of was the surgery was done without anesthetics. That’s why they call it the great generation. The knowledge that your ancestors and other real people were apart of that history make it come alive. Sorry to ramble Have a safe and reflective Memorial Day. [/QUOTE]

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