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In reply to the discussion: I just found out that one of my great great grandfathers served on the Confederate side [View all]Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)My dad kept up with one of his buddies who survived Saipan and Okinawa with him until his buddy died five years ago. Among his peers who served in WWII, he's the last one living. He never talked at all about the war while I was growing up, but now he's opening up more. Daddy absolutely refused to watch war movies or documentaries when I was growing up. I don't think he ever watched a John Wayne movie because he said John Wayne glorified war, while it was really hell. He said those movies were lies to the people. Daddy opposed the Vietnam War because America wasn't threatened. He opposed the Iraq War because they didn't attack us. He still hates war and has lived with the gruesome memories of it for 70 years. But he's a proud Marine who fought for his country in war and thereafter fought for peace.