V-J DAY, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD IT? August 14th, 1945

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: V-J DAY, WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD IT? August 14th, 1945
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eugene Adams on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:20 am:

WHERE WERE YOU AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING THAT AFTERNOON WHEN YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

Who can forget the famous V-J Day kiss of celebration on Times Square?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-474893/Mystery-sailor-famed-VJ-day-kiss-New-Yorks-Times-Square-identified.html
kiss

And they were celebrations on the of the side of the world,
http://biggeekdad.com/2010/08/vj-day/ Video, 3 min 35 sec


WHAT WAS I DOING WHEN I HEARD THAT NEWS?

I was still in ‘Naval Air’ flight training near Corpus Christi and on a formation training flight when the announcement was made.

We had radios but didn’t use them for communications so most of us listened to a local radio station at the end of the band. The announcer broke in with the news and said, “We now take you to London, England for the ringing of Big Ben. My hair stood on end.
http://www.ilovewavs.com/Effects/Misc/Sound%20Effects%20-%20Big%20Ben.wav
Give it a chance to ring the single chimes after the initial ringing. There is about an 8 second delay


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:25 am:

Since I was two months short of my fourth birthday, I don't specifically remember what I was doing, but I was probably playing outside in the yard at my grandmother's house (where my mom and I were living at the time).


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:36 am:

I was 9 years old at the time, and was at my dad's furniture factory where I spent almost every day during the summer. My job was to sweep up the sawdust and take it to the incinerator. We were expecting something to happen, because of the atom bombs which had been dropped. I am surprised they didn't surrender after the first one! My uncle also had a shop next door where they made plastic coathangers and other plastic products. He always had a radio on and was the first one to tell everyone.

I wish our more recent wars and the current one would end with decicive victory instead of just going on and on seemingly forever.
Norm


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By george house on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:43 am:

I first heard about it in 8th grade world history back in '63. Thanks, old guys, for causing my folks not to have to learn german or japanese.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By george house on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:46 am:

I first heard about it in 8th grade world history back in '63. They very same day I first heard about VE day. Thanks, old guys, for causing my folks not to have to learn german or japanese. A realistic 'Thank You' for protecting our national way of life and precious Constitution when both were threatened during your generation.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:51 am:

I wasn't even a gleam in my daddy's eye until 8 years later. Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roar Sand on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:53 am:

For me it was May 8th. That was the end of the German occupation of Norway. They invaded Norway and Denmark April 9th, 1940.
I was too young to remember the beginning of the five year long occupation, but I remember well the end. That day the locomotive of the train passing by was decorated with Norwegian flags and birch boughs, and we went over to a neighbor's, who had a flag pole, and watched them hoist the Norwegian flag, - something we had not seen for over five years.
The next day people were told they could come and pick up their radios that had been collected early on.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Aldrich Orting Wa on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:02 am:

I agree with you Norman. I was involved with everything from Viet Nam to the Gulf war and there were no definitive times that said the war was over. A new breed of politician? That is where the wars begin and end... or not end.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:05 am:

Being much older than Dick, I had my fourth birthday in June. After marching around the breakfast table with Don McNeill, I went out and rode my chain-drive tricycle down Gulf Avenue to the next corner and back. That evening the folks listened to Gabe Heatter on KHJ. As he always did during the war, he began his broadcast saying, "There's good news tonight!"

OK, I don't remember those things happening specifically on that day, but I remember them happening in 1944.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Gruber- Spanaway, Wash. on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:11 am:

I was four so I don't specifically remember the war's end except I remember all the neon lights that I had never seen because of blackouts.
(Seattle)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:26 am:

I guess I was 7.
When my dad milked the cows he always had a radio on.
That evening when he heard the news in the barn he sent me up the hill to the house to tell my mother the war was over.
I remember it just like it was only 67 years ago.

I did not know Denmark was also occupied by the Germans.
When I was in Norway in the fifties I saw the concrete barriers along the roads.
Are they still there? Did the Germans build them to keep the Allied forces out or did the Norwegians build them to keep the Germans out?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Seth from NC on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:32 am:

Lol wow. My grandfather was probably out on the USS Anzio somewhere on that day. My dad, his youngest son, wasn't born for another 17 years.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John W. Oder - Houston, Texas on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:36 am:

No doubt riding my tricycle in the back yard at 527 Peck Ave. in San Antonio (a street obliterated by building Interstate 10). Probably was another absurdly hot Texas August.:-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:37 am:

History says we lost the Vietnam War, which implies that the approximately 58,000 casualties of that war died for nothing, but, as a Marine who knew many of the soldiers who fought over there, I consider Vietnam a long protracted battle in the larger "Cold War" against Communist Russia, to stem the spread of communism throughout the world, and, even though we did not win that battle, due in large part to the tactics employed by the Generals and politicians in charge, we did win the overall "Cold War" which culminated in the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin wall.

It may not be correct in the eyes of history, but that is the way I like to look at it, for the sake of the brave men that fought and/or died in Vietnam.

Semper Fi.

Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Harrison,Norco Ca on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:41 am:

Since I was about fifteen months old I don't remember where I was or what I was doing at that time.I am sure mom and dad were happy.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Henry Petrino in Modesto, CA on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:55 am:

I was about 2 1/2 years off into the future, but I feel connected due to the fact that my dad served in the Pacific. The end of the war with Japan, the timing of his return home, he and my mother meeting and getting married, and my arrival are all a single stream of events to me.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:56 am:

Aaron, the Netherlands has those bunkers as well. It was cheaper to leave them than to try to destroy them after the war. They were part of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall" as a defense against the Allies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Wall

The Germans attacked the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, and the occupation lasted until 5 May 1945. May 5th is still observed as Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag). My father-in-law was in the Dutch army and stationed along the border with Germany on 10 May 1940. For almost two weeks, the family had no idea where he was or even whether he was alive.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:14 pm:

WHERE WERE YOU AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING THAT AFTERNOON WHEN YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

2 months away from being born.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Sanders-Auburn Al on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:21 pm:

67 years ago today my dad's navy outfit was on Palawn waiting for orders to invade Japan, instead they took part in the Japanese surrender Sept 2nd on Truk. He was an "old man" among the sailors and officers...Aug 14th 1945 was his 39th birthday.



God Bless The Greatest Generation....and All Veterans.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By neil obrien on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:36 pm:

VJ day was my 4th birthday & I remember riding all around our town with my mom & dad on the city firetruck & ringing the bell & siren.The next year my dad would not take me for a F/T ride. Years later I understood why.
GOD BLESS ALL THAT SERVED


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Doug Money - Braidwood, IL on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:37 pm:

Wow, my Mom was just 23 at the time and She and my Dad had been married just over a year. He had been in Germany during the war and had gotten home around May 1944. I came along almost 16 years after VJ day.

I feel so young now. :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Frank Harris from Long Beach & Big Bear on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:39 pm:

I was 13 and had a U.S. Coastguard pass and could legally leave the Los Angeles harbor through the submarine nets and go outside on trips so was on Catalina Island in the town of Avalon on my cousin's 40 foot boat that he had leased to the Coast Guard for a dollar a year. They let him be captain of it and they rigged depth charges on it and he was stationed in Santa Monica Harbor and he patrolled from Pt. Fermin to Pt. Dume. in December 1944 they assigned him as skipper of a 104 foot crash boat rescue vessel with a hospital operating room aboard and they were to get downed pilots out of the water and operate if necessary then transfer them back to their carriers. This was in the days before helicopters. The 104 footer was put on to the deck of a troop transport and awaited deployment while anchored off Okinawa in a huge attack force waiting to deploy an invasion of mainland Japan. So the Government returned his boat to the family and we went out on a fishing trip to catch a lot of fish for the family and friends to eat because of the meat shortage.

There was a nice hotel near the town of Avalon named the St. Catherine which had been converted into a Merchant Marine training school. Off shore there was a large troop transport on a training mission. They had gun tubs all over it and at about 4:00 in the afternoon they began shooting their big deck guns, ack ack guns and, the pom poms. The noise was deafening and we were passing them at about a half mile. There were a lot of landing barges circling the large ship and they were training for deployment by launching and re stowing the landing barges with winches and cables.

As we came into the harbor to get a mooring there was a big party going on and a landing barge passed us going east with a rack of four depth charges/. Those Higgins boats had Jimmy 671 engines in them and could do about 12 knots empty. He rolled all four depth charges off the rack and they blew up throwing four columns of water about 150 feet in the air and the waves those four that were dropped at once almost sunk the landing barge and we had to head towards the blast to meet the waves head on.

When we finally got a mooring and into town on the shore boat I saw two sailors and two pretty girls on a Harley and they were carrying four cases of beer. Later that night they had a parade in town and the Merchant Marine band came marching around Casino Point. It was really something for a 13 year old to see all of that kissing and hugging going on out on the street. I had caught a 25 pound albacore that afternoon and we took it to a friends house where his wife baked it very well. Albacore is known as the “Chicken of the Sea” and it tasted like baked chicken breast. My dads friend had three pretty daughters and later on that evening I got to second base for the first time.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Eugene Adams on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 12:48 pm:

Yeah! You would now have to be antiquated to really remember the incident. I was 20 at the time.

Trivia. For what it's worth.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/video?id=3454648 7 min 51 sec after a short ad.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Fred Dimock, Newfields NH, USA on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 01:03 pm:

I was 7 months and 6 days old so I was either eating, sleeping, or filling my diaper.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dana A. Crosby in Glendale, Az on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 01:07 pm:

My Dad was with Patton from Northern France to Nuremberg. He's gone now and I still find it hard to believe that he was a skinny little Lieutenant that had just turned 20. I was 50 before I knew that he had been decorated for bravery. I came along a couple of years later (1948) and made my contribution in the Navy during Viet Nam ('66-'70). Thanks Dad and all those you served with.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Van Evera on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 01:19 pm:

I've been waiting for the Aussie's to answer this. (must be in the wee hours there...) I did not know until the last couple of years that Australia was actually bombed scores of times by the Japanese. Their brave men who were also prisoners of the emperor, suffered right along with our captured soldiers and sailors. (Along with the Englishmen and Dutch pow's.) We must not forget....... we must pass important history like this on to our young people! My opinion......


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 01:25 pm:

Too bad this wasn't posted an hour earlier, before I went to Old Bold Pilots breakfast. Nobody there remembered the day.

Tom Simms' P-38 was shot down over New Guinea in Sept 1944, and his back was broken in 3 places after the trees collapsed his parachute. This morning he told us about going to the Bimbo 365 Club back in San Francisco, and finding out his body cast did not keep him from having fun..

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Patrick on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 01:43 pm:

Dana. My neighbor and good friend and hero, 94 year old Gilbert Losh, served in the 3rd Army under Patton as a radio operator in an M-18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer in Europe from D-Day when he landed on Omaha Beach, to his discharge in May, 1945. He said one of the things he remembers the most from the war is the first time he ever heard Patton speak in person and the surprise of everyone present, at how high Patton's voice was. Nothing like the gravelly voice you hear from George C. Scott's. portrayal in the 1970 movie "Patton". They got his use of profanity right, but the voice was way off. Jim Patrick


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Sam "POPS" Humphries on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 03:24 pm:

I was about to turn 6 and do not remember where I was. I am however an AMERICAN who is extremely proud of the sacrifice's made by "THE GREATEST GENERATION" that allowed us to keep our freedom's. At least for now. They are rapidly being taken from us.

I have been to a number of gatherings of PT Boats organization and listened to many story's of endurance. Let's also remember the families of those who left loved ones and gave life for all of us.

THANKS AND SUPPORT TO AMERICA'S VETERANS.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 03:25 pm:

I have the pleasure (and the honor) of hanging out with a few members of 'The Greatest Generation' at the military museum where I work. Guys like Bill Price (92) who earned a Bronze Star in the first wave to hit Omaha Beach on D Day. 18 year old kids who were shot out of B-17's over Germany and spent the rest of the war as a POW. B-29 pilots who fire bombed Tokyo. It's a humbling experience to listen to these guys when they get together and start talking. I'm a Viet Nam Vet and I saw a little action but I feel like such a lightweight around these guys.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John A Voss on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 03:36 pm:

I was 8 at the time & lived near what is now Hancock Air field -- Syracuse , NY
Then it was a army air base . We would ride our bikes a few blocks
to a high spot on our road where we could view the base .
All types of heavy bombers as far as the eye could see .
Air traffic day & night .
When you land at Hancock today you can still see a few
pads they parked the planes on .

memories -- jack


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gary H. White - Sheridan, MI on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 08:03 pm:

I was in the second grade, Howell, MI. I only remember my mother was very mad. A couple friends of my dad had stopped by the house, both parents were at work, and took the toilet paper (rationed?)for streamers as they celebrated downtown.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Gavin Harris (Napier, NZ) on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 08:36 pm:

Probably just a glint in the old mans eye.
He was part of "J Force" and in his words, "went to Japan for a holiday". He didn't talk too much about it and had passed away before I had the interest to ask him about it. We have many photos but they all show him in "holiday mode."

It was another 7 years before the glint resulted in me.

(He was also a "Frank" so frequently find myself thinking about him when reading these threads).


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Roar Sand on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:36 pm:

Aaron,
The fortifications you saw were most likely German. There were a lot of them.
The school where I started first grade in the fall of '45 had been used by the Wehrmacht (German for "defense forces"), and behind it were concrete bunkers which we kids explored. We had to start the school year at a community house while they cleaned up and painted our school.
Roar


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Lee Crenshaw Richmond Va. on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 10:51 pm:

I was four years old. I recall my standing on our front porch and frantically operating my string
and cork pop-gun hollering
"the war is over the war is over".
Lee Crenshaw
Richmond, Va.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mike Garrison on Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - 11:15 pm:

Dad came home from the South Pacific (New Guinea and the Philippines) and got drunk. After a few months of pickling his brain he sobered up and met my mother. They got married in 1946 and in June 1950 I was born. After a few years my Mom told all of us, including my Dad about VJ Day. Dad would talk about the Army but not the war. She was working in the laundry at the time and after her shift ended she celebrated for a few hours until her Dad walked down to main street and made her and her sisters go home. She was 15 and it was still daylight when her Dad showed up. She never forgot VJ Day and when she died of cancer 31 years later she still talked about how Dad had won the war.

I'd also like to add something. We didn't lose the Viet Nam War. And trust me it was a war. The bullets, rockets and mortars were real. The battles were real. We won the battles and the politicians lost the war. So remember, there wasn't a one of us that fought in that mess that should say they lost the war. John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and guys like Bill Clinton and his college buddies and Cassius Clay and Ted Nugent lost their war. Not those of us who were there.

Ya know, when we went to war we had to go in spite of a total lack of support from our government, our high school friends and a lot of people who had been our sports heroes. Shame on this country for treating those of us that went in such a deplorable manner and then to now claim we lost that war. Naw, those that served didn't lose a thing. But 75% of the people in this country who should have been there for us lost their war. There are even people around now that say we shouldn't have been there. That's wrong too. We were marines and soldiers and we did what our country asked us. We had to be there. The truth is our government shouldn't have put us there. Our government killed over 51,000 of us and crippled many, many more. Otherwise those of us still living, live with our disabilities and we're also expected to live with the guilt of losing that G. D. war. And that isn't fair.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By David Stroud on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 02:22 am:

Well said Mike. Over the last few years I have learned about a lot of the idiotic decisions and policies made by our politicions during the Viet Nam war. They were stupid, if not borderline criminal, IMHO. Dave


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dennis Halpin on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 07:38 am:

"Welcome Home" my Nam Brothers.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tom Bergmann Sydney - Australia on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 09:06 am:

Hackensack, New Jersey, I was 5 years old.
I said to my mom "Wouldn't It Be Nice if the war was over? And we heard that day that it was.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Andrew Deckman, Ogden Utah on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 03:33 pm:

I was -37 years old at the time, and my mom was -3.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Norman T. Kling on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 04:22 pm:

Andrew, your clock is running backwards.
Norm


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