World War II vet

I had to take my wife to the doctors the other day and as I sat there this older gentleman walked in and sat down. He was wearing a hat that proclaimed WWII vet. I don't see many of them about anymore. I went over to talk to him and he immediately informed me I had to speak up as he had lost most of his hearing getting shelled ferrying supplies into Saipan. He said his hearing was still there but he was D***d if he could find it. I thanked him for his service and saluted him as I left. Since the day I got my discharge I only salute those I feel deserve it.

Out of 16+ Million who served during WW2 there are about 697,000 WW2 veterans still living. Most in their 90's. They are passing at a rate of 430 per day. It will be a sad time, when you no longer see someone wearing a hat showing he served during that time.

The National WWII Museum | New Orleans: Honor: WWII Veterans Statistics

At my church on veteran's day they ask vets to stand up, starting with WWII, then naming each war after. The WWII vets went from about 5 to 1 the past 10 years.

There were several of my school teachers who as young men had served in WW2 but they very rarely talked about their experiences. Around the time that I left school they were reaching retiring age. Just at the time I was leaving school I had the opportunity to go to a talk given by one of my science teachers about his experiences in Bomber Command during WW2. I hadn't even known that he had served in WW2 because he had never discussed the matter with us and the story he told was amazing. From what I can remember he had served as aircrew for most of the War, flying bombing missions from England, deep into occupied Europe such as what is now Gdansk, Poland. Later on in the war he went out to Burma to fly combat missions against the Japanese. I remember he described bombing missions to us as hours and hours of complete boredom but with minutes of total terror mixed in.

Here are a couple of Veterans chatting to some re-inactors at a recent VJ Day event.

I was fortunate to be able to talk to a "Famous" vet......Charles Leighton, navigator on the Memphis Belle. He was my math teacher in Fenton High School in Michigan