Stumbled across this. Folks touring modern day Hacksaw Ridge. Showing the cliff and the caves.

That was a great video. Thanks for posting. My dad was at Okinawa but his group never went ashore. Would have been #4 for him.

Wow that's amazing. What were the other 3? I'm reading through With The Old Breed right now actually and am near done.

Thanks for sharing that history.

Chipotlemonger said:

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Thanks for sharing that history.

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You are welcome. Thanks for your interest in it.

My grandfather served in Korea, and spends time at the VA hospital with a friend of his. That guy was in the first wave for Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, and second wave for Okinawa if I remember the story right. He said that he was on the Liberty ship headed for Japan when they surrendered, and that all the hell he saw in WWII didn't prep him for Inchon (where my grandfather snapped his ankle getting in the landing craft and was evacuated to heal before rejoining at Chosin). Right after Chosin, both he and my grandfather decided not to reenlist, and went into civilian trucking.

I am continually humbled by what our warfighters endure. There is nothing I can say other than "thank you". I don't know how to express my gratitude, don't believe there are words that can.

AgBQ-00 said:

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I am continually humbled by what our warfighters endure. There is nothing I can say other than "thank you". I don't know how to express my gratitude, don't believe there are words that can.

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I agree 100%. I've walked through Belleau Wood and there are craters where shells exploded in many places. I have waded into Red Beach #1 where my dad came ashore. I cannot imagine the sound, the smell, and the sheer terror those young men experienced. I held a Marine Corp ring found on one of the recoveries on Tarawa in 2015. Found with the remains of one of our guys going through the identification process. I thought about a family member being given it, 72 years after their Marine was killed. Then it occurred to me, he likely had no children, no grandchildren. But I hoped there was a niece or nephew who could be given that ring, someone in the family. As I held it, I wondered how he died. Was it instantaneously, or did he have time to think about never seeing family again.

Still have many places to go. I have been to many of the WWI American cemeteries in France. Talk about an humbling experience. Row after row of marble crosses and stars of David. Acre after acre, gone now for over 100 years. Real guys, and lost their lives at 17 and 18 and 19 years old. So many of them.

No words can do justice to their sacrifice. It hurts my heart to think about it.