I had the chance this weekend to go with my College to Washington DC. I was able to view most of the monuments a few museums and the best of all I met several Veterans!!!
I only have part of the pictures with me so I will post more later.
In front of the Washington Monument
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And the Lincoln Memorial
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The first Vet I met was an Army Gunner that was at Pearl Harbor and was credited for shooting down 2 Japanese aircraft December 7th 1941!
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The one on the left was in the USMC and was on Okinawa and Iwo Jima, the one on the right was in the Navy and if I remember correctly was a gunner.
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This Gentleman below was stationed in Texas in the AAF and then served from Africa to the MTO and Europe
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This vet (Bill Dempsey) was in the 42nd infantry division in WWII
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This Navy man was deployed on an aircraft carrier in 1945 and then a battleship in occupation. I asked him what he did in his service and he humbly said "nothing", Although he entered late in the war I am sure he had to sacrifice a lot during the war, and leave high school early since he entered the war at age 17
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Below another Navy veteran of WWII was stationed on a battleship and I think he was a gunner
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This was the only Korean War veteran I talked to besides some of the other WWII vets that served in Korea and Vietnam as well. He in particular was a tanker in Korea and I think the war is why he is in his wheel chair.
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This Gentleman was a B-29 pilot and a Colonel post war, he was stationed in the same area as my Great grandfather before he was a pilot in Britain I think he was a navigator then.
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Below is another WWII Navy vet, He was a college coach and professor, but only speaks occasionally now. He was on the USS Texas (Battle ship) and he was at DDay, but besides that he was mainly in the Pacific theater. He told me about a battle in 1944 when he was running on the Battleship deck and Kamikaze fighters were flying into ships all around him. Then when he saw one only feet above him he could see the pilot and he then screamed and waved at him before he hit and the pilot pulled up at the last second only to hit the side of the ship beside him.
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These two gentlemen were both pilots in WWII the one on the left flew C-47s and the one on the right flew fighters for the Flying Tigers.
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The last Gentleman I got to talk to was an amphibious landing vehicle gunner for the navy in WWII, the battle he talked most about was Si pain
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This was at the Vietnam memorial, People leave notes flowers and sentiments to their lost loved ones and trace their names on the wall.
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This is at the back of the WWII memorial I have many more pictures of it I will post later
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Each star represents 100 US Service men that died in WWII
They are modled after the star banners that mothers and wives would hang for their serving men and if they died they would sew a gold star over them
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I will add more to this post later and possibly edit some info on the veterans when I find what I wrote down about them.
Hope you enjoy
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