Lunatock

Anyhting that may speed up the progress on your inside guy scouring the WW2 archives for info on my Grandfather's service record.

...also for anyone else that may like these pics as well.

Ray

__________________


"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

JG73

That's your Grandfather? Nice pics. Where was he in WW2?

__________________
>Facit Omnia Voluntas<

THL

Lunatock
This may be a stupid Q, but did you go to the records dept? They were able to put together most of my grandfathers records (that were not destroyed in the fire they had) for me. They are also sending me copies of all his medals. His records are awesome. Maybe when I get back home I will scan a few and post them. There are accounts that he had written when he got back about when they were captured and how they were treated as POWs. It really is the coolest.

The best part? Get this...this is awesome!! He was in the 44th Infantry Division so I was online searching for everything and anything I could about this and found some websites. I started sending emails and letters like a mad man. I have so far talked to 3 people from his division on the phone. One was with him @ Stalag IVb. I did not know this the first time I talked to him. See since my grandfather had no SSN, it is not listed on anything, but he had a Army serial #. This Army # is listed next to someone with my grandfathers last name but the name of Julian S. (my grandfathers name was Jesus S.) on one of the rosters that were sent to me from one of these men I have talked to. I dont know if they wrote it wrong intentionally or not. Maybe the Germans had a thing against the name Jesus or something . Anyway, after I got this roster, I called the guy from Stalag IVb back and asked him about a Julian and he said he did know this guy with my grandfathers last name (Since I have the same last name, I am intentionally leaving it out - too many weirdos showing up here). This guy then sent me pictures of the guys that he was housed with at Stalag IVb and my grandfather is this "Julian"!!!!

When my grandfather enlisted, his middle name was Cervantes, but they spelled it wrong (Servantes) and so it is listed this way on all his papers. You know until the day he died he left it as Servantes. Even after he got out he did not change it back to a "C". Strange. But cool too.

I tell you, this is almost addictive, It is like I cannot get enough information from people about it. My aunt and I are even thinking about going to the reunion they are going to have this fall for his Div. My grandfather died very young...when he was 60, so I think it is just cool as can be that I can actually talk to people who know first hand what went on in bit€he, France
(darn profanity checker!) that day that they were captured.

__________________
"To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch

"I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren

"I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally

"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control

Lunatock

Well I guess I could check that source out, as well as have Bluesman's help finding info on my Grandfather's service record from North Africa to Berlin.

His shoulder patch indicates he served with the 66th Infantry division, "The Black Panthers". And the medal on his chest indicates he also earned the right to call himself a Tanker. Though for reasons unknown he was on foot through most of the war.

Aside from those copies of the original photographs my father had given me, he has a lot of old slides my Grandfather took or aquired during WW2. Lions, Chimps, and an Orangutan in North Africa. The US Army skiing in the German Alps.

And he has a lot of slides of Nazi Generals, guards outside a concentration camp, Lewelsburg (German Castle that served as the waffen ss HQ), and a pic or two of the cameraman, an ss Lt. leaning up against his luxury car...when my Grandfather took a camera off the hands of the aforementioned ss Lt. that he shot.

Lunatock

Although both have since passed on from this mortal coil. There once was a time when you would of said that about my Grandfather, and even more so my Grandmother at your own risk.

Quote:

Are you as handsome and as responsible? Must be.

"Handsome" tends to vary by opinion, and there is one single woman who pretty much has the lion share of the right to call em that.

But as Responsible? Chances are pretty good...since I grew up in the days when Parents could resort to capital punishment for their Children, and only the children would regret it.

Quote:

What medal is that Cross?

That is a medal to show he was trained as both a Tanker as well as a ground pounder.

Bluesman

Excellent work! I'll get 'em to my guy tomorrow...

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

JG73

Wewelsburg please


What's about a thread with photos and stories of our ancestors during WW2?
Would interest me much.

Lunatock

Crappy photo when compared to a distand land based shot of the entire mountain the castle sat apon.


Sounds good. I'll take the title of captain obvious and say it'd be like a simple conversation thread we had...but with pictures.

Lunatock

Got a little update for Bluesman. Apparently that shoulder patch you can partially see on the shoulder of my Grandfather's uniform...I had thought it was the symbol of the 66th Infantry. But after seeing a display case of WW2 shoulder patches...it could very well be the symbol of an Army outfit known as The Tank Destroyers.

Captain Drunk

My word, for a moment I mistook that snap for a recent 1990s pic of U2's Bono. Never thought they had tattoos like that back in the good ol' 1940s.

Lunatock

Never knew Bono had that much ink.