I am a new member and would like to introduce myself.
I am 56 years old born and raised in SW GA. I an not a veteran but I support all our vets, from all wars and I support our action in Iraq, not just the soldiers, but what they are doing.
My dad, Julien Sr, was in WW II. He is alive in well still living with my mom, they still live alone and at home, she is 92 and he is 91.
He was a paratrooper in the pacific theater. He was on Luzon and then in Japan. His best story is about being on the dock watching the filming of MacArthur landing. They had been there for about a week before the "official" landing.
His great-grandfather was his male rold model because his dad died when my dad was three, and his grandfather was also dead. The GG- grandfather was Grandpa Chapman who was a Confederate veteran. That always amazes me when I think about it... that when I talk to my dad I am talking to a man who knew a Confederate veteran well... Chapman was a 2nd Leuitenant.
The other ancestor that I know of who was a veteran was Zacheriah Gherkins, (or Jerkins). There is a monument to him and a few others in Talahassee where he settled after the revolutionary war...
Leon County's American Revolutionary War Soldiers - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com
I came of age during the Viet-Nam war. I was 18 in 1970. I was within a few numbers of being drafted the first year and they suspended the draft. The next year I was within a few numbers and they stopped it. Looking back I kinda wish I had joined but then again I am glad I did not have to go. I am certain that they would have put me in the tunnels because I was 119 pounds saoking wet.
In any case, I am proud of my family and I an honored to be here among honorable people.
I will be seeing my dad again soon and will ask him for some stories. I have all his decorations but he has never told me stories. He always told me that the only Japs he saw were on a trail across a valley and that the only person he knows he hurt was an American sailor who was with a group chasing him from some bar. He said he picked up a brick and threw it back at them and him some poor sailor in the head and he went down like a tree.
Maybe there is more, I will find out and post whatever he tells me.
My hobby is blues guitar and relic hunting. I have 15 guitars and 6 metal detectors. I live in Cassville, GA in the middle of Sherman's "campaign for Atlanta" of 1864. IT is getting harder to find relics but most any day I can go out and find something. If anyone is interested I can post some pictures of CW relics.
I also know someone who relic hunts in the Stalingrad area and can get links to his pictures if anyone is interested. I will tell him about this place.
Julien Bowles Jr
Hello to all...
Re: Hello to all...
.. und mear...
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