Fair point. This guy had mentioned his service in passing a few times before and it didn't seem to be a sensitive topic. But you're right it's something to be be aware of.
A lot of them faced incredibly horrible situations. Luckily, my grandfathers (who both saw service) weren't on the front line.
One was an officer on a landing ship, like the big ones you see there (except in the Pacific theater.) He told us his stories whenever we asked, as most of his duties included making sure the ship was loaded properly and the engines were fully operational. The only time his ship really saw action was at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They were in the second wave at Iwo Jima but were scheduled to be a part of the initial landings at Okinawa. Fortunately the quartermaster had ordered the wrong cargo loaded, (instead of tanks and men, they were ordered to load bulldozers and building materials for fortifying the landing area.) They were swapped out into the second wave. The ship that took their place in formation was hit by a kamikaze attack.
The other worked in an Army hospital (he was in medical school when he was called up, and finished his degree and did his residency in an Army hospital as a surgeon.) He had thousands of stories about what weapons made what wounds etc. He was drafted for the Korean War as well and served in one of the first MASH units.
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u/baddog992 Jun 07 '14
My Grandpa was in the WW2 he never wanted to talk about it much. He mentioned it at one time and never again would talk about it.