Ya wanna feel old?

[old_prof]

I have lived under three flags since birth: 48 stars for five years, then 49 stars for a few days, and then the 50 stars we still have today. I was born under the Eisenhower administration, our last president to be born in the 19th century (1800s).

Same for me except it’s a slightly different time under 48 for me

 

[metal4lace]

Dick Van Dyke's appearance in Weird Al Yankovic's video for "Smells Like Nirvana" (his parody of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit") was hilarious even though it only lasted a second. I remember when that video came out. We watched it over and over again and laughed our asses off! No, wait I was thinking of Dick Van Patten! (I just checked).

 

[metal4lace]

But his name is GREAT for Lit.

The studio made him change it to Dick Van Dyke....

It was originally Penis Van Lesbian.

 

[MillieDynamite]

So sad, all the misinformation out there.

The studio made him change it to Dick Van Dyke....

It was originally Penis Van Lesbian.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I just realized that the day I graduated from high school is closer to the end of WWI than today ...

 

[old_prof]

I sometimes think that the Vietnam war, which was so very formative to me, is as much ancient history to my students as WWI is to me.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Oh, believe me, finding out Hugh Laurie was NOT American shocked the hell out of us.

That and the actor from The Walking Dead in their normal accents always throws me.

 

[Writer61]

So sad, all the misinformation out there.

Yes, he changed his name from Penis Car Lesbian.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

We left 'Nam in the Spring of '75, over 50, closer to 51 year ago.

When I search 'Nam. I get other stuff unrelated ... Network Access Management.

Those who were eligible for the draft in '74 ... that was only less than 30 years disparate from the end of WWII in '45, while WWI ended in '18, 56 years earlier.

Back to the thread topic, in '74, Dick Van Dyke played the Columbo role others have mentioned and appeared on Dick Cavett.

 

[ColtonWrites]

I sometimes think that the Vietnam war, which was so very formative to me, is as much ancient history to my students as WWI is to me.

I used to (2015) work in a nursing home that was almost exclusively Vietnam War vets, with a handful from Korea. We had one man (he was 104) who might have been WW2?

 

[YmaOHyd]

I used to (2015) work in a nursing home that was almost exclusively Vietnam War vets, with a handful from Korea. We had one man (he was 104) who might have been WW2?

There's a weird coincidence. So did I. Can I ask which one?

 

[old_prof]

I used to (2015) work in a nursing home that was almost exclusively Vietnam War vets, with a handful from Korea. We had one man (he was 104) who might have been WW2?

He would have been 34 at the end of WWII, so almost certainly that one. A decade too young to have been in WWI.

One of my first serious girlfriends (in high school) had her grandfather living with her. He was in the Expeditionary Force that spent two years in ArchAngel (part of Russia) right after WWI. There is a rumor that the Brits had them there to support a coup against Lenin that never happened. I've never heard a better explanation for them. He had no idea why they were there.

I love hearing first or second hand oral histories. I knew my great grandmother, who was born in 1869. She had known her great grandfather, who fought in one of the battles in the American War for Independence. I unfortunately have forgotten which one. He was actually fighting, he was like ten running powder horns between soldiers or something like that. But it gives me a sense of how short American history really is. I have heard second hand stories from its birth.

 

[ColtonWrites]

There's a weird coincidence. So did I. Can I ask which one?

Well, I dont live anywhere near there anymore, and I dont think Im violating HIPAA -

Gino Merli Veterans Home in Pennsylvania.

Horrid, horrid place - the staff was totally checked out. But the residents were mostly sweet.

Edit: just looked them up and the ratings and reviews are much improved from when I was there. Glad to see it.

 

[Voboy]

I used to (2015) work in a nursing home that was almost exclusively Vietnam War vets, with a handful from Korea. We had one man (he was 104) who might have been WW2?

When I was in high school, we did a community-service thing where we went to nursing homes and talked to people. I spoke with many WWI vets on that project, and now I'm very glad I did.

At the time, we were 75 years removed from US involvement in WWI. The Vietnam vets were all slightly younger than my own father. The WWII vets were still dominating the workforce. It's still jarring to realize kids about ten years ago saw Vietnam vets the way I probably saw WWII vets. Ten years from now, the Vietnam vets will be like the people I thought of as WWI vets.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

It's still jarring to realize kids about ten years ago saw Vietnam vets the way I probably saw WWII vets. Ten years from now, the Vietnam vets will be like the people I thought of as WWI vets.

No one saw 'Nam vets that way. They were seen as bums and junkies.

It was a different time. The WW vets were seen as heroes in a way the 'Nam vets never were and never will be.

The Green Berets was a Wayne style film.

Apocalypse Now was probably more accurate.

When people think of the WWs, they think of Pearl, Midway, Iwo

When people think of 'Nam, they think of MyLai, VC being tossed out of Helos and the disarray of the last few days in Saigon.


We never should have been there. At all. The kids that were shuffled off from Buffalo and dropped in a jungle had no idea why and no chance of understanding.

 

[Writer61]

No one saw 'Nam vets that way. They were seen as bums and junkies.

It was a different time. The WW vets were seen as heroes in a way the 'Nam vets never were and never will be.

The Green Berets was a Wayne style film.

Apocalypse Now was probably more accurate.

When people think of the WWs, they think of Pearl, Midway, Iwo

When people think of 'Nam, they think of MyLai, VC being tossed out of Helos and the disarray of the last few days in Saigon.


We never should have been there. At all. The kids that were shuffled off from Buffalo and dropped in a jungle had no idea why and no chance of understanding.

I am reminded of seeing the grave of a soldier, killed at Rorke's Drift in South Africa, 1879. It was 100 years since the battle, and he was the same age as me, 18. I doubt that he knew why he was there.

150 British & colonial soldiers held off 3,000 to 4,000 Zulus, fresh from the Battle of Isandlwana. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarede that day.

 

[Voboy]

No one saw 'Nam vets that way. They were seen as bums and junkies.

It was a different time. The WW vets were seen as heroes in a way the 'Nam vets never were and never will be.

The Green Berets was a Wayne style film.

Apocalypse Now was probably more accurate.

When people think of the WWs, they think of Pearl, Midway, Iwo

When people think of 'Nam, they think of MyLai, VC being tossed out of Helos and the disarray of the last few days in Saigon.


We never should have been there. At all. The kids that were shuffled off from Buffalo and dropped in a jungle had no idea why and no chance of understanding.

I'm talking about kids, high schoolers, ten years ago.

They didn't see the Vietnam vets as bums and junkies. They just saw them as old guys nearing retirement.

 

[Voboy]

I am reminded of seeing the grave of a soldier, killed at Rorke's Drift in South Africa, 1879. It was 100 years since the battle, and he was the same age as me, 18. I doubt that he knew why he was there.

No, he knew: he was there to protect the hospital at the mission. That was at least more knowledge than his buddies in the other companies, the ones killed the day before. Those guys literally had no clue: they were just wounded, waiting to die in the grass, staring at the sky. On the march one hot day, then losing your life an hour later.

The men at the Drift at least had more awareness than that. But your larger point is undoubtedly true: no teenager in any expeditionary army has ever really been expected to grasp the bigger picture. Even the American WWII boys weren't thinking much about geopolitics, outside the simplistic "let's kill Nazis/avenge Pearl Harbor" level.

Not that that's a bad thing. You don't really want soldiers thinking too much.

 

[MillieDynamite]

On both sides of all armed conflicts, the enemy must be viewed as the Villain (with capital V). On top of that, if you can make your soldiers believe the other guys are subhuman or inferior to you, all the better.

No, he knew: he was there to protect the hospital at the mission. That was at least more knowledge than his buddies in the other companies, the ones killed the day before. Those guys literally had no clue: they were just wounded, waiting to die in the grass, staring at the sky. On the march one hot day, then losing your life an hour later.

The men at the Drift at least had more awareness than that. But your larger point is undoubtedly true: no teenager in any expeditionary army has ever really been expected to grasp the bigger picture. Even the American WWII boys weren't thinking much about geopolitics, outside the simplistic "let's kill Nazis/avenge Pearl Harbor" level.

Not that that's a bad thing. You don't really want soldiers thinking too much.

 

[ruddygore]

He would have been 34 at the end of WWII, so almost certainly that one. A decade too young to have been in WWI.

One of my first serious girlfriends (in high school) had her grandfather living with her. He was in the Expeditionary Force that spent two years in ArchAngel (part of Russia) right after WWI. There is a rumor that the Brits had them there to support a coup against Lenin that never happened. I've never heard a better explanation for them. He had no idea why they were there.

I love hearing first or second hand oral histories. I knew my great grandmother, who was born in 1869. She had known her great grandfather, who fought in one of the battles in the American War for Independence. I unfortunately have forgotten which one. He was actually fighting, he was like ten running powder horns between soldiers or something like that. But it gives me a sense of how short American history really is. I have heard second hand stories from its birth.

Not a coup. A full scale civil war. Had British and American soldiers at Archangel, Vladisock, and probably a few other places.

 

[old_prof]

Not a coup. A full scale civil war. Had British and American soldiers at Archangel, Vladisock, and probably a few other places.

The biography of Sydney Riley claimed that he was plotting a coup, with the backing of several governments and several American industrialists.

I've seen a couple of other coup scenarios as well, although the Riley one seems the most plausible.

 

[Writer61]

No, he knew: he was there to protect the hospital at the mission.

That is a very tight framing. Do you think he joined up with that in mind?

 

[Voboy]

That is a very tight framing. Do you think he joined up with that in mind?

Of course not. Odds are, he joined up for money; most soldiers joined the British Army that way.

He went to Natal without understanding why, and when the rest of his battalion marched off to their doom he didn't understand why. Then his officers and NCOs took him in hand and gave him a job to do, and it was a job he could understand: it made sense. Stack the bags along that perimeter, shoot in that direction, and let's save the mission station.

That's one of the reasons he, and they, fought so well there. They had officers who gave them purpose.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Of course not. Odds are, he joined up for money; most soldiers joined the British Army that way.

For example, Pvt John Williams, aka John Fielding, who was Welsh of Irish Catholic descent. One of ten children, his father was a gardener. Williams changed his name and joined the army as it paid more than the job he held. Sources give his birthday as 1857, and he would have started working for the Patent Nut and Bolt Works in 1865 at age eight before joining the South Wales Borderers at 20 to better provide for his two daughters, stepdaughter and three sons.