last war story...

why did grampa tell me his stories of the war? well, i think it was by default. men of his generation would not have spoke about the war to wives or daughters; with his friends that had been in the war a shared look was all that was needed; his friends that were not in the war could not have understood. if i had not been born i suspect that grampas' story of the war would have found its way to jim, his oldest grandson. he wanted it known to his people, but not for glory; that was not his way. grampa did not express emotion often; i only saw him do it twice; one time was when our nieghbors son jimmy drowned at bible camp; i found grampa crying on the back steps...he said "i will never again get that close to a child that is not my own". i think the war was an extemely emotional experiance for him; it may have defined his life. when i entered the workforce in the early 70s i worked with many ww2 veterans; they were the "old guys". almost to a man they were confident, patient and kind...they had nothing to prove and were likely just glad to be alive....; grampa kept his medals from the war in the "junk drawer" in our pantry...i took and played with them once and lost the claspe awarded for extended line service...he didn't seem bothered by it. he told me a few stories of his combat experiences and i have hesitated to enter them. grampa would never glorify war and niether would i...i'm just glad i'v never seen it! in italy with an infantry regiment getting choped to pieces accross a river the sappers had to get tanks accross for support...under an old bridge grampa made all the measurments for the support beams needed for the tanks to cross...he did this under morter and machinegun fire...he was "mentioned in dispaches" for this job...after a ferosious night attack grampa and his mates came out of thier slit trenches...his good friend, a seargent, lay dead; he and another sapper lifted the seargent by the arms and legs to carry him off the field, but he broke in half...grampa got a big piece of shrapnel from a morter up his nose....he said "a wee jewish doctor with little
hands stiched me up so good i had no scar"...his nose never looked the same tho...his ankle was broke...again from a morter...grampa was not fond of morters!