Bataan Death March Survivor Dies

[Backlighting]

R.I.P. Philip

http://www.tulsaworld.com/obituaries/localobituaries/phillip-coon-wwii-pow-and-bataan-death-march-survivor-dies/article_a61a88ce-dbb9-5455-b326-fe6a8b0d69c9.html

[BaalChatzaf]

It will not be too much longer before World War 2 is just history, no more to dwell in a living memory.

The youngest surviving veteran must be in his middle 80's now.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

I just buried my 95yo uncle at Arlington last week. You can Google his obit as David L Gaede.

--Brant

[Backlighting]

So sorry to hear that Brant.

He certainly had front row seats to key battles in the war in the Pacific.

I salute him.

http://www.routsong.com/obituary/David-L.-Gaede/Kettering-OH/1357641

[moralist]

The greatest generation of real Americans who knew depression and world war is almost gone...

...leaving this nation in the smooth uncallused inept hands of the fat lazy entitled generation.

Wash... Rinse... Repeat...

Greg

[Brant Gaede]

So sorry to hear that Brant.

He certainly had front row seats to key battles in the war in the Pacific.

I salute him.

http://www.routsong.com/obituary/David-L.-Gaede/Kettering-OH/1357641

Thank you, Joe, and thank you for putting up that link.

David's B-17 was attacked by Japanese Zeros in 1943. An exploding 20mm cannon shell peppered him with shrapnel and he couldn't move so he passed ammo up to the dying nose gunner. He then spent a year and a half in a hospital and rehab in Battle Creek, Mich. They couldn't get all that metal out so he was buried with it.

Let's not forget, though, about that Bataan death march survivor who just died. That was hellacious. (Things like that meant no trouble in American minds in bombing Japanese cities into piles of ash and rubble.) Ironically, MacArthur, one of America's greatest generals was greatly responsible for that calamity. He gets a pass for what happened in the initial Japanese attack clobbering all his closely parked airplanes--that's what happened at Pearl Harbor too--but he should have provisioned the Bataan peninsula when he had a chance too and didn't. That's why all those men had to surrender. 75,000 men would have put up a hell of a fight if not lacking food and ammo. They fired the inconsequential brass at Pearl Harbor. It was a good thing they didn't fire him. Instead, they gave him his second Congressional Medal of Honor, for political reasons. Part of the war effort--boost morale. He didn't deserve his first one from WWI either. He had tremendous personal physical courage, however.

--Brant

[Francisco Ferrer]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

[moralist]

My 93 year old Mom who actually lived through the Great Depression and World War II, had a different experience.

Greg

[BaalChatzaf]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

Even so they fought the hard-Fascists bravely and sometimes unto death. If they fell for the soft-Fascist line of FDR it is because the economy was broken and they were worn down and scared. Americans are not distinguished by their political and philosophical wisdom but when they see a Bad Thing that has to be fought, many will step up to fight.

I owe a lot to this misled people. Because they fought I did not end up as a cake of soap on some Nazi's bathroom sink

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Francisco Ferrer]

Mao, whose rise to power was due in no small part to the policies of "soft-fascist" FDR, killed four times more people than the Third Reich, yet, thank God, not one of his victims underwent soapification.

[Brant Gaede]

Mao, whose rise to power was due in no small to the policies of "soft-fascist" FDR, killed four times more people than the Third Reich, yet, thank God, not one of his victims underwent soapification.

Mao, whose rise to power was due in no small to the policies of "soft-fascist" FDR, killed four times more people than the Third Reich, yet, thank God, not one of his victims underwent soapification.

I wonder if Jews being made into soap and lampshades has any truth. I once saw a picture decades ago of two purported Jewish-skinned lampshades--I don't even recall if it was on tv or in a mazazine or out of a book. What was done by Mengele was horrible enough frosting on the indigestible Holocaust cake.

WWII cost 70 million lives. I give that cost over entirely to Hitler and his Nazis leading Germany around by the nose and going to overt war in 1939. You can substract what the Japs did, if you want. Start with the rape of Nanking.

--Brant

could have happened

[Francisco Ferrer]

World War II officially began in September 1939 after Hitler, a killer of millions of people, invaded and annexed Poland.

Naturally, in order to defeat this monster, FDR and Churchill allied with Stalin, also a killer of millions of people, who had in September 1939 also invaded and annexed Poland.

To make sure the ruler of Eastern Europe was not a ruthless dictator like Hitler, FDR sent ruthless dictator Stalin essential military aid and used U.S. personnel to round up and repatriate millions of people trying to escape from him. There is pretty good evidence that Roosevelt's administration also gave Stalin the A-bomb.

Stéphane Courtois, the editor of The Black Book of Communism, which estimates death tolls under 20th century communist regimes at 95 million, makes a point which few historians have recognized:

After 1945 the Jewish genocide became a byword for modern barbarism, the epitome of twentieth-century mass terror... more recently, a single-minded focus on the Jewish genocide in an attempt to characterize the Holocaust as a unique atrocity has also prevented the assessment of other episodes of comparable magnitude in the Communist world. After all, it seems scarcely plausible that the victors who had helped bring about the destruction of a genocidal apparatus might themselves have put the very same methods into practice. When faced with this paradox, people generally preferred to bury their heads in sand.

That's right, the "Greatest Generation" four times elected a leader complicit in a horror many times larger than the Third Reich's.

[Brant Gaede]

For purposes of this discussion assume what you will about FDR, but it doesn't follow that the voters in 1932, 36, 40 and 44 knew much about it--or the future--except aid to the USSR in the context of the ongoing WWII in 1944.

--Brant

the enemy of my enemy . . .

[Selene]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

For an intelligent man, I wonder if you actually considered the tone of your post?

Or, if you did, you chose to the words carefully?

[Francisco Ferrer]

For purposes of this discussion assume what you will about FDR, but it doesn't follow that the voters in 1932, 36, 40 and 44 knew much about it--or the future--except aid to the USSR in the context of the ongoing WWII in 1944.

--Brant

the enemy of my enemy . . .

Maybe the voters that created the opportunity to enact the Affordable Care Act, which "puts consumers back in charge of their health care" will be called the Greatest Generation by their children. Sure, they were scared, worn down, perhaps misinformed, but they saw a poorly run system that had to be set right. God bless 'em.

[Francisco Ferrer]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

For an intelligent man, I wonder if you actually considered the tone of your post?

Or, if you did, you chose to the words carefully?

You're right. My words were vulgar and poorly chosen. I retract the first sentence.

[Brant Gaede]

For purposes of this discussion assume what you will about FDR, but it doesn't follow that the voters in 1932, 36, 40 and 44 knew much about it--or the future--except aid to the USSR in the context of the ongoing WWII in 1944.

--Brant

the enemy of my enemy . . .

Maybe the voters that created the opportunity to enact the Affordable Health Care Act will be called the Greatest Generation by their children. Sure, they were scared, worn down, perhaps poorly informed, but they saw a poorly run system that had to be set right. God bless 'em.

What the G--D----- ACA is--practically--is Medicaid for everybody not on Medicare if not rich and the degradation of Medicare in the direction of Medicaid which in turn had degraded American medicine starting in the mid-60s. And let us not forget the progressive enslavement of American doctors.

--Brant

there!--I feel better too!

[Francisco Ferrer]

Maybe the voters that created the opportunity to enact the Affordable Health Care Act will be called the Greatest Generation by their children. Sure, they were scared, worn down, perhaps poorly informed, but they saw a poorly run system that had to be set right. God bless 'em.

What the G--D----- ACA is--practically--is Medicaid for everybody not on Medicare if not rich and the degradation of Medicare in the direction of Medicaid which in turn had degraded American medicine starting in the mid-60s. And let us not forget the progressive enslavement of American doctors.

--Brant

there!--I feel better too!

On principle (which remains unknown to me) many Republicans will fight the socialization of medicine tooth and nail and, with the same ferocity, fight to preserve the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.

This is the genius of the two-party political system.

[Selene]

For an intelligent man, I wonder if you actually considered the tone of your post?

Or, if you did, you chose to the words carefully?

You're right. My words were vulgar and poorly chosen. I retract the first sentence.

Francisco:

Thanks.

Frustration can lead to that.

No harm no foul.

A...

[Backlighting]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

Hello

So who is the greatest generation... for you?

Can you tell me why?

-Joe

[BaalChatzaf]

re right. My words were vulgar and poorly chosen. I retract the first sentence.

The generation of my father and my uncles proved their mettle on the beaches of Normandy and in the fire fights on Okinowa and Iwo Jima. They may have lacked philosophical and political sophistication, but they did not lack the guts to stand up against the Bad Guys and ultimately defeat them.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Francisco Ferrer]

Sure, sure. My uncle was at Iwo Jima. For centuries children have been raised on stories of men marching cheerfully to their deaths while singing the glory of King and Country.

Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die

Statism will begin its overdue retreat when men are not so quick to answer the bugle call of "duty."

[Francisco Ferrer]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

Hello

So who is the greatest generation... for you?

Can you tell me why?

-Joe

It's an idiotic contest for collectivist minds.

Greatest generation. Greatest vintage of human beings.

Do people who come here really think in those terms?

[BaalChatzaf]

Sure, sure. My uncle was at Iwo Jima. For centuries children have been raised on stories of men marching cheerfully to their deaths while singing the glory of King and Country.

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die

Statism will begin its overdue retreat when men are not so quick to answer the bugle call of "duty."

You should talk to soldiers who were there. No one of them ever marched cheerfully to their deaths. Most of them were scared but they could focus well enough to complete their missions or die trying. Any soldier who tells who he cheerfully faced death is either lying or is deluded.

Only Jihadis are happy to die for Allah and that is because they get to fuck their 72 virgins endlessly.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Backlighting]

Greatest generation--phooey! Most Americans of the 1930's and 1940's bought the lie that the Depression was caused by laissez-faire, that FDR was a saint, and that the duty of American boys was to die overseas to save "democracy" in places like the Soviet Union.

Hello

So who is the greatest generation... for you?

Can you tell me why?

-Joe

It's an idiotic contest for collectivist minds.

Greatest generation. Greatest vintage of human beings.

Do people who come here really think in those terms?

Excuse me but you seem to...as you stated, with obvious disdain, "greatest generation phooey!"

Surely you have an idea as to what a great generation would be comprised of, you know, values.

Oh, I didn't know you did a vulcan mind meld on me and know what terms I think of. Really.

Never mind.

Happy 4th. of July!

-J