I found my Mama's World War II

[Are_grits_groceries]

War Ration Book. It was Book Two and it still has a couple of stamps in it. I am going through stuff from that time period. It's like being in a wayback machine.

I'll hold on to the book. I might need to use it.

Edit to add: I have his old uniform. It fits me, and I am not humongous. That shows how much general growth there has been. He wasn't a small man for that time.

[slackmaster]

1. What a wonderful thing to find!

It really makes you think, doesn't it?

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. Yep!

I also found my Daddy's discharge papers from the Army from WWII. When you went in at that time, you stayed a looooong time unless you were KIA or wounded badly. He was at D-Day thru the Battle of the Bulge and further. That makes you think too!!

[slackmaster]

4. My stepfather joined the Navy in 1934 when he was 15 years old

He grew up dirt poor. His mom wrote a letter giving his year of birth as 1918 (he was born in 1919, you had to be 16 to enlist).

Tours were four years. He re-enlisted in 1938, timed perfectly to get caught up in WWII.

He ended up staying in the Navy until 1956. He never attended high school, but worked as an electronics design engineer in the aerospace industry - An entire career spent at ONE corporation.

Most people living today have no idea what life was like for that generation.

[tularetom]

5. My dad joined the navy in 1934 also

He was raised in an "orphan's home" in Oklahoma and ran away to CA when he was 16. He enlisted at age 18 and served until 1938 and then got married. I was born 3 months before Pearl Harbor. In Feb 1942 he re enlisted wound up in the Marines. In Sept 1942 my mom became a navy nurse and my sister and I were left with grandparents until 1945.

I was always really proud of what they did during that time.

[madokie]

6. As you should be

It was people like them that we need to be acting like today. Not the joining the services part so much but taking the steps necesary to ensure our country survives this money madness. This is an attempted money coup, it's what is going on right now, imo.

[tuckessee]

3. Did he bring back any German or Japanese stuff?

If he did don't let those items go without first thoroughly checking out their value. That's where the big bucks are.

[SharonAnn]

7. My elderly dad, was "tricked" out of his Japanese Samurai swords.

As a physician, he was given those by several families whose members' lives he saved while he was in the U. S. Army occupation in Japan during 1945-1947.

He would never part with them, but as he got olderly his thinking began to fail. He was conned out of them by an ad (I think it was in AARP) from someone purchasing items who first convinced him that he was almost broke (he wasn't), that he desperately needed money (he didn't), and that the swords were not worth very much (they were).

After he had "sold" them, he hid from us for a couple of years that he had done this. Some others also took great advantage of him. His second wife's children "bought" all my mother's oriental rugs without giving us a chance to "buy" them. They convinced him that we didn't want them. Imagine!

And then there are the innumerable bogus charities and sweepstakes that are targeted to the elderly.

It was my first set of lessons in how elderly people are targeted by those who want to steal their assets.

[ensho]

8. kick

nt