greatest generation

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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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fadedandblurred:

Superheroes in scenes from WWII, this is fantastic Photoshop work by photographer Agan Harahap.

Ok, it didn’t happen this way, but please read The Monuments Men!

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We completely flaked on the anniversary of Operation Varsity last week. So…to make it up to you…here is a great David Shepherd painting. Also, read this obituary of a soldier who took place in the operation to leapfrog the Rhine River.

Or…read the following books:

• The Last Drop
• Crossing The Rhine

"Young human beings, especially young males, are apt to give considerable attention to sex. In areas of military operations, they are removed from the stimuli of secondary sex references, which are (in America) an accepted part of everyone’s daily life: bathing beauty photos, magazine covers, semi-nudes in advertising, etc. Our enemies tried to use the resulting pin-up craze for propaganda purposes, hoping that a vain arousal of oestrum would diminish morale."

—

Professor Paul M. A. Linebarger in Psychological Warfare. A scary, but interesting read!

Reminds Me of Perconte…

When I rand across this photo of an 82nd Airborne paratrooper resting somewhere in Normandy, it suddenly reminded me of the guy playing Frank Perconte in HBO’s Band of Brothers series. Obviously not him, but got me thinking about little Italian Perconte…one of the first and toughest BoB’s…and he never really got the credit like so many other NCO’s in the war.

I read We Who Are Alive, and Perconte struck me as one of the real social leaders in Easy Company even though he wasn’t the combat leader we like to idolize. Just goes to show you it takes all types to make a team strong!

I highly recommend you read the book if you have the time. It is kind of like the anti-Hollywood, anti-Stephen Ambrose version of Easy Company and rounds out the story we have all grown to love.

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Sergeant Ken Hougard reports to Generals Eisenhower and Bradley to explain how he evaded capture from the Germans after being shot down by posing as a French citizen. 

For more information, read:

The Air Force’s Escape & Evade Society

(Source: dwighteisenhower.com)

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Japanese General Kuribayashi commanded all Imperial forces on Iwo Jima. A respected intellectual long before the war, he has to be remembered as one of Japan’s greatest combat leaders and strategists.

He was reluctant to ask his men to fight to the end, but all but a few hundred did. The Japanese forces on Iwo Jima are rightfully remembered as some of the greatest defenders in history.

I would love to read a comparison of Iwo Jima’s defense to that of the American surrender at Bataan and Corregidor. I believe you would find all of the contrasting ideas about culture, honor, nationalism, etc. At a basic level, the Japanese men were fighting for their homeland and knew what was about to happen while the Americans were surprised at Bataan and not battle-tested. Still…it would be a very interesting comparison.

For more information on Kuribayashi, please read:

So Sad To Fall In Battle

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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.