machine gun nest in Burma thru google that nobody in my family had ever seen. My grandfather was one of the 3000 volunteers for the unit that became known as Merrill's Marauders. He died of brain cancer before I was born, but after he worked in the coal mines of PA, he enlisted and volunteered for what was essentially a suicide mission with Merrill's Marauders. They marched over 1000 miles thru the Himalayan Mtns with zero mechanized support, into Burma behind enemy lines with mules and packs on their backs and fought the second longest jungle campaign in history against an elite japanese unit that vastly outnumbered them. They were sent there with no extraction plan because the expectation was 85% casualties. The entire 1057th was awarded bronze stars and the 75th Ranger regiment wears their patch to this day.

Every single man of those 3000 volunteered. 3000 men needed nothing but to hear that their country needed them.

When my grandfather returned alive, he was nursed back to health from AOE (accumulation of everything) by my grandmother. They married... he built a house with his own hands, 5 kids later he died of brain cancer leaving the strongest person I have ever met to raise 5 kids on her own. She crushed it so much so that there was zero question on how our first born daughter would be named... she got the absolute strongest name my wife and I could imagine. Period. Full stop.

My grandmother would be honored, but the men and women of the greatest generation bestowed a tremendous gift on all those paying attention.

[Post edited by No1Hokie at 03/20/2017 11:17PM]