For those of you who had parents who served in World War II.

[rzemanfl]

What would your parent(s) think of Germany contemplating war crimes charges against the person nominated to run Bill Donovan's old shop (now the CIA)?

[First Speaker]

1. My Mom worked for the OSS...

...and knew Donovan. She'd be all for it!

[rzemanfl]

4. Thank you for the acronym, I had a senior moment. n/t

[Angry Dragon]

2. No problem

[mcar]

3. I cannot imagine

My father (god be good to him) landed on DDay. A terrified 18 YO draftee. His corps (excuse me if I have the military terminology wrong) got somewhat into Germany and liberated a work camp.

He died at 62 of cancer. . Rarely talked about his experiences. But I cannot imagine anyone who served would condone such atrocities from our side.

[hlthe2b]

5. My Father and three Uncles served, 2 in Europe and 2 in Pacific

They are all gone now, but I can't imagine they would not apoplectic. But as mentioned by others, they never really talked about the war and their service, except I'd imagine at the VFW or American Legion among other vets.

That said, I have one Aunt still living (she was much younger than my Uncle that she married), but of course is now up in years. I would love to ask her about all this, but I KNOW she is a Faux News watcher.

sigh...

[Golden Raisin]

6. My father was in the Glenn Miller Army/Airforce Band.

He's long dead (over 50 years ago!) but I know he would be horrified by Trump, his Cabinet and the current Republican-controlled Congress. While he would have understood their Constitutional rights, he would be livid about Nazi's or neo-Nazi's marching in American streets.

[rzemanfl]

10. Interesting. Did you inherit musical talent? n/t

[Golden Raisin]

19. Yes. Strictly amateur though. Definite musical DNA inner core

but force-fed classical music almost from infancy.

[rzemanfl]

22. My grandson is quite a musician. Won the Louis Armstrong award at his high school.

He's in college now and broadcasts very astute jazz program on the college station. He's in a couple of bands and gets some paid gigs. Where that comes from, other than years of practice beats me.

[lapfog_1]

7. Dad was in the Navy

served on a destroyer doing convoy escort in the North Atlantic, fire control officer on the same destroyer at Anzio, almost torpedoed on 3 occasions (once saw torpedoes miss on both port and starboard side simultaneously). Fished dead bodies of other sailors out of the water.

Pretty sure he would want our new proposed CIA director to face war crime trial at the Hague.

Oh, side note, he was awarded an "American Theater Battle Ribbon" (one of only a few hundred ever awarded) for sinking a U-boat INSIDE the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. For the rest of his life in the reserves every admiral that ever inspected his Navy base would notice it and ask about it and, of course, he couldn't tell them anything (wasn't declassified until around 1980).

[rzemanfl]

9. Wow. I have a master's degree in history and never heard about a sub being sunk in

New York harbor.

[lapfog_1]

13. the u-boats would come in as close as possible

so as to track the convoys as they left the harbor. This one was bold.

I believe that there were contemporary reports of debris washing up on the New Jersey shore, but more likely from other U-boats

[denbot]

8. My maternal grandfather was in the Pacific Theater.

My dad’s still surviving oldest brother (Escort Carrier/Oiler respectively) was also there and they would have demanded it!

[Kingofalldems]

12. What does that have to do with appointing a torturer to head the CIA?

[Hekate]

14. Nice bit of whataboutism and deflection from the OP's question. Your comment about shades of grey...

...in this context is very reminiscent of Trump's statement that "We kill people too," when asked about Putin's policy of assassinations.

No, you don't get to do that.

While we have often stumbled from our ideals, we are not now and never have been Nazi Germany. There are no shades of grey about that segment of German history.

We should be ashamed of ourselves for our treatment of Japanese-Americans during WW II, but by gods we did not work them to death and shovel them into gas chambers and ovens.

Just so you know.

[rzemanfl]

18. Well said. n/t

[nini]

15. My dad is spinning in his grave over this entire administration

As much as I miss him I'm glad he's not here to see the rise of fascism again.

[MurrayDelph]

20. My dad spent D-Day

treading water off the coast of France. His brand-new tank had a defective flotation collar, so it sunk like a rock. Crews going by offered him a lift to shore, but with no weapon, there was no point.


While he did get more conservative in later years, he would not have put up with the current combination of evil and incompetence.

[rzemanfl]

21. A lot of those duplex drive tanks sank.

I read a novel years ago about one that didn't.

[gratuitous]

23. Dad's Silver Star citation

Dad's Silver Star citation recounted his running up a hill toward a Nazi machine gun emplacement while under fire, tossing a grenade through the firing slot, then circling around behind it to shoot every enemy solder in there. So, he'd probably be rather unhappy about the way his heroic service has been pissed on so thoroughly by his Republican party successors.

[rzemanfl]

24. My father was behind a tree that was slowly being shot to pieces by a German with

a Schmeisser when another guy got up and started firing at the German from the hip. My father told the guy to get down, his reply was "We're all going to die anyway." Thankfully neither did that day. That's why I'm here.