I walked down the driveway to our mailbox by the street yesterday...Veterans Day...obviously no mail, but daily habits die hard I guess. Anyway, today there was an interesting article in our local paper about two WWII era vets who were at Applebees (free lunch courtesy of the restaurant) yesterday.
One was a person with a Navy combat background which began at Pearl Harbor and ended during the Viet Nam war when he served as an advisor to the RVN Navy. In the paper he told about all the bloody battles he'd seen close up during the Second World War in the Pacific...on a destroyer most of the time. Those who served on destroyers back then not only had to deal with tough combat action, but the weather as well as they tossed about on very rough seas. The "tin can" Navy were the "grunts" of the force at sea back then...taking on seemingly impossible missions such as attacking Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers head on...many times causing severe damage to the enemy, before they themselves were heavily damaged or sunk. Those guys were real heroes.
Google "The Last Stand of the Tin Can Navy" at Amazon. It's a great book about what they accomplished and sacfificed. The guy being interviewed in our paper was there. Heroes all.
