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You've just spent years fighting the Hun and...


Greg Sebring
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I can imagine the hooting, hollaring, and wisecracks at this being handed out. Why dad saved it is a mystery but I found this in his papers. I had to post separate halves as it is to big to post one piece.....don't think anyone could have read it.

 

Greg

 

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post-118-1171668855.jpg

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Sometime after my Dad returned home from the Army in 1946, a man came to the farm to talk to him about joining the reserves. He told Dad that if he would enlist in the Army Reserve, they would make him a Staff Sergeant, etc. Dad had left the Army as a Sergeant so they were promising one more stripe just for reenlisting.

Dad told me that he told the guy to get lost. He had all of the Army he wanted. Just a few years later, his younger brother was killed in Korea.

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Sometime after my Dad returned home from the Army in 1946, a man came to the farm to talk to him about joining the reserves. He told Dad that if he would enlist in the Army Reserve, they would make him a Staff Sergeant, etc. Dad had left the Army as a Sergeant so they were promising one more stripe just for reenlisting.

Dad told me that he told the guy to get lost. He had all of the Army he wanted. Just a few years later, his younger brother was killed in Korea.

 

 

Lee,

 

Thanks for the brief snippet. Sometimes, I think the "out of the ordinary" documents produce a side of the story we don't often see. Each item, no matter how different, adds another piece to the puzzle and makes that part of our history a little clearer.

 

Greg.

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Agreed. My former scoutmaster, who died this past month, was a WWII veteran, an MP who served at the Nuremburg trials!

 

When I was a kid, starting out as a military collector, he often told me (and the other scouts) how proud he was that before he left the post, he took all of his uniforms, medals, paperwork, and everything "army", tossed it into the nearest trash barrel....and lit it on fire! (That included his highly polished MP helmet....he said it went up 'like a roman candle...I loved seeing that G-D thing burn....). God, I cringed at that...even as a kid!

 

When they tried to get him to re-enlist, he told the career NCO what he could do with "his army" in no uncertain terms. It almost, according to him, resulted in a fistfight in the orderly room.

 

He never joined any veterans organization, replaced any of his awards, or even wore 'surplus' gear parts during his time with the scouts (canteens, web belt, etc).

 

When he was buried, there was only a very short line about his WWII service, and at the funeral, which I attended, there was nothing to even indicate he had served in the military.

 

All that having been said, he was a fine Scoutmaster and had alot of patience for us rowdy redneck punks. He did his time, but didn't want anything more to do with the military.

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Jason,

 

Thanks Jason,... Everybody dealt with their service in their own way. I find it a bit sad he kept it all inside. Imagine if it were different.... Think of the stories he could of passed on especially his Nuremburg time.

I was never in the military. The closest I came was being in the Michigan State Police for just under 30 years, (no comparison). I think WWII had such an impact on the whole world that anyone who had any part in the grand scheme of things almost owes it to future generations to educate them with the personal experiences they lived through. My dad saw some pretty good combat and to this day he will talk for hours on end about everything he did and saw.

 

Thanks for sharing your memories about another hero of the Greatest Generation,

 

Greg.

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I guess many thought of just getting it over with so they could get on with their lives.

That became clear in my 20+ years of doing historical research.

On the other hand it is too bad that way some interesting stories are lost forever.

But it is understandable ... a lot of us can't know for real how war can influence people's mind.

That is why I never pushed when I dealt with Veterans, you never know what they had been through.

 

Erwin

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I agree. Thanks, Greg. Far as I'm concerned, you "did your time" and should hold your head high. That's from a fellow LEO LOL.

 

I did pester him from time to time, to at least tell some stories, as I got older; he just never would.

 

On the other hand, my uncle, who served with the 1st ID from Tunisia all the way up to the hedgerows (2 SS, 2 BS, 3 PH, CIB, etc) loved telling his war stories. I know them by heart. I have all of his local newspaper clippings and photos; sadly, his uniforms/medals were lost in a fire years and years ago. He was buried with the replacements.

 

My other WWII veteran uncle, from the 78th ID, (BS, PH, CIB), shared some stories with me over the years, and saved every single thing he could from his army service. His son and daughter have it now, but I've at least been able to see and handle it.

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