Johnny Clem, a real American hero.

[RED]

Not like current heroes that become heroes only because they were captured.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/john-clem

[Roadkingtrax]

Captured is still better than not serving.

Master Clem would no doubt not preferred a man who bought his way out of duty, as was practiced during those turbulent times.

[bdm]

Thank You for posting really good reading about are history

[togor]

Nice Clem bio but why slag POWs? Especially when you were never in a war theater?

[RED]

Cowards that surrendered are heroes to you. Guys that fought and and died for their country are zeroes according to low life traitors like you. How much combat and how many purple hearts do you have.. I was in the Navy from 1965 to 1973. I volunteered for some of the most hazardous duty there was in the military in the time. I came within 1/10 of a second of dying off the catapult of the USS Enterprise. I was on continuous active duty for 5 years and 8 months.

Come on hero and tell us what you did. How many times did you risk your life in the service of the country? You are a Socialist/Communist paid cowardly, stinking, agitator and I hate your lying guts.

[Merc]

General John Clem was an inspiration then and now. Great bio.

[dryheat]

Red, your channeling Lt. Dan. "I was supposed to die with honor".

[togor]

Cowards that surrendered are heroes to you. Guys that fought and and died for their country are zeroes according to low life traitors like you. How much combat and how many purple hearts do you have.. I was in the Navy from 1965 to 1973. I volunteered for some of the most hazardous duty there was in the military in the time. I came within 1/10 of a second of dying off the catapult of the USS Enterprise. I was on continuous active duty for 5 years and 8 months.

Come on hero and tell us what you did. How many times did you risk your life in the service of the country? You are a Socialist/Communist paid cowardly, stinking, agitator and I hate your lying guts.

Hey Lyman....your education continues. This is what we have to put up with when Red is in one of his "busy" periods.

Red, thank you for your service, but none of that justifies slagging POWs with the widest brush you seem capable of imagining, and it was entirely incidental the link and wholly unnecessary.

Red, my mom's stepdad was captured by the Germans. His B-17 (of which he was flight engineer) lost an engine on a mission when an errant bomb release clipped the prop. On three engines they couldn't keep up with the formation, and when they finally ran out of cloud bank, two Luftwaffe fighters intercepted them. Seriously, what would you have that crew do? In the event, they dropped their gear and followed the Luftwaffe bird to the airfield. As it happens, one of the fighters strafed their aircraft on the tarmac while crew were still in it. The tail gunner got hit in the groin and there was a lot of blood, but he survived with the help of German medics and nurses. I remember the satisfaction in my grandfather's voice (how I knew him since my mom's biological father was KIA in a B-26--story for another time) when he said "we got everyone home". Meaning his entire crew survived 15 months of captivity and returned to the USA. Er sprecht Deutch from his days on his grandfather's farm north of Milwaukee, and it proved valuable on multiple occasions.

Footnote about the tail gunner. Grandpa was the old man of the enlisted crew at age 31, and tried to get the tail gunner booted off when stateside, since he'd rather read comic books than train. In war conditions grandpa said he was the best crewman that they had, able to stay cool under fire as the ME's and FW's came in.

[lyman]

yall should all be ashamed

[Roadkingtrax]

The stars in Iraq were the brightest I've ever seen in my life.

No doubt it's lack of infrastructure had something to do with it.

[lyman]

that is the way it was when I was a kid and visited my grandparents farm,

far enough away from the major towns, so there was no glow on the horizon,
nothing but the moon, and stars,

on a full moon it was like twilight, you could see a long way thru the fields,

[m1ashooter]

Red thank you for the history lesson and Togor thanks for sharing.