General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My uncle enlisted in the Navy, right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I found this picture of him [View all]NNadir
(33,512 posts)...cigarettes got wet. He was a "Armed Guard" gunner.
The war didn't kill him. The cigarettes did, albeit decades later. (That's how I exist.)
He also served in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier. There was an accident on board involving a shell, but no Japanese planes, that resulting in ripping open two of his fingers and severing the nerves. He blamed an officer who he considered an idiot. He kept the fingers, but had no feeling in them for the rest of his life. He was very proud of being able to grab hot things off the stove. I think he grew to be proud of the injury.
I sometimes tried to emulate him as a child with that hot stuff stuff.
Not a good idea.
This was a terrible war, not a "Good war." All wars are terrible, but I personally didn't understand that until I became a man. "Slaughterhouse Five," the ultimate veteran's book, had something to do with me learning that no war is just.
We may learn more about war soon, since a coward and a fool, a moral weakling with bad hair, will be occupying the White House after being rejected by the bulk of the American people.