World War II Veterans

kclj520 · Feb 2, 2025

The real American Heroes!

kclj520 · Feb 4, 2025

kclj520 · Wednesday at 9:39 PM

A great return today from 102 year young Col. Richard Bushong, WWII fighter pilot, who flew 28 combat missions in Europe!

cornwellfamily · Thursday at 10:28 AM

Kevin, this is your best collection ever!!! I love the history and the courage those men had.

northicehero99 · Thursday at 12:04 PM

Nice stuff! Those are probably tough to get as a lot of them have to be approaching 100? if still alive.

kclj520 · Thursday at 1:55 PM

cornwellfamily said:
Kevin, this is your best collection ever!!! I love the history and the courage those men had.

northicehero99 said:
Nice stuff! Those are probably tough to get as a lot of them have to be approaching 100? if still alive.

@cornwellfamily @northicehero99

Thanks a lot guys! I have really enjoyed contacting the veterans, several of whom have written nice notes thanking me for remembering them (!!) like anyone could forget their courage!

I am a high school social worker, so I do a Holocaust presentation for my students each year, and show photos from our 2011 trip to Poland. We stayed in Krakow and travelled to Auschwitz one day, it was incredibly moving. I came up with the idea of sharing some of these signed items with a small bio card for students to pass around and check out as another more hands on part of the presentation!

cornwellfamily · Thursday at 5:21 PM

What a sobering place that would be. On a different subject My grandmother had 4 brothers that were all at Pearl Harbor on December 7. Two were Sailors one was a Marine and the Fourth was in the Army Air Corps. All made it through without a scratch.

pinetarboys · Thursday at 5:31 PM

My grandpa Angelo Vernile was an Army World War II veteran who passed on…Purple Heart recipient, had a glass prosthetic eye

due to shrapnel! RIP Grandpa…love you and miss you!

Thanks Josh

kclj520 · Thursday at 6:36 PM

cornwellfamily said:
What a sobering place that would be. On a different subject My grandmother had 4 brothers that were all at Pearl Harbor on December 7. Two were Sailors one was a Marine and the Fourth was in the Army Air Corps. All made it through without a scratch.

@cornwellfamily

Mike,

That is INCREDIBLE! What an amazing blessing that none of them were hurt or killed, Pearl Harbor was a devastating day in history. Not a surprise that all 4 enlisted and went, there was such an amazing sense of patriotism, everyone wanted to do their part in the war effort.

As far as Auschwitz being sobering, you are spot on, it was unbelievably sad. People were just silent the whole time we were there. In my presentation, I highlight the fact that after we visited, I felt called to share the message of why the Holocaust happened (hate, racism, fear, anger) and what we can do to prevent these things from being so prominent in our society. I had a student ask me "how did you come back down from your visit there?" to which I answered that I never did, which is why I came up with the presentation, I felt like it was my responsibility to share the experiences from there with them!

kclj520 · Thursday at 6:39 PM

pinetarboys said:
My grandpa Angelo Vernile was an Army World War II veteran who passed on…Purple Heart recipient, had a glass prosthetic eye due to shrapnel! RIP Grandpa…love you and miss you!

Thanks Josh

@pinetarboys

Josh, that is awesome, thank you to Grandpa Angelo for his service, that is awesome. And a Purple Heart for his courage and wounds as well. What a great example he set, and was clearly such a special and beloved person to you!