greatest generation

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The crew of the USS South Dakota standing with heads bowed as benediction is read in honor of fellow shipmates killed in action off Guam, 1944.

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This guy is probably deaf right now…

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Iwo Jima flag raiser John Bradley with John Wayne during the filming of Wayne’s classic war film, The Sands of Iwo Jima. Bradley, along with Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon, played himself in the movie. His son would go on to write Flags of Our Fathers. Clint Eastwood directed the movie based on the book.

Bradley, a medic and civilian mortician, struggled with PTSD his entire adult life and rarely talked about the war after the film was released. This suffering veteran, directly linked to our country’s greatest war actors, symbolizes the void between Hollywood and the sad realities of war.

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US submarines ranked by ships sunk. Why isn’t there an infographic for this??

Check out Valor At Sea. More data and information about the US submarine fleet during WWII to keep you going for quite a long time.

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Traverse the sea on a piece of living history by hopping aboard this Patrol Torpedo Boat ($1 million). One of only 12 remaining WWII PT boats in the world — and the only one licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard for carrying passengers — she’s armed (weapons deactivated, of course) with multiple .50-caliber machine gun stations, a cannon, four torpedo tubes, and two depth charge launchers, and also features a triple-ply mahogany hull, modern electronics, radar, and two turbo-charged diesel engines good for 1,100 hp and a top speed of 42 knots. (via Uncrate)

JFK would be disappointed in the dude wearing blue jeans and manning the 50 cal. Khakis and deck shoes at a bare minimum! Come on!

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dandylionseeds:

here’s my grandpa from my dad’s side during wwii

he was in the navy!

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THIS MAN MAY DIE 1943

(Source: library.marshallfoundation.org)

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The launching party for the SS Harriet Tubman. June 3, 1944

(Source: archives.gov)