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  1. Nanda Panjandrum Member
    Nanda Panjandrum
    @

    Whoa, Boss!  Glad Pandas bounce…

    • #1
  2. Judithann Campbell Member
    Judithann Campbell
    @

    Thanks for this, Boss. My Dad is a WWII vet, and yes, they are tough as nails. God Bless them.

    • #2
  3. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Judithann Campbell (View Comment):
    Thanks for this, Boss. My Dad is a WWII vet, and yes, they are tough as nails. God Bless them.

    May they (including my dad) always get the respect and credit they deserve.  And may we make sure that’s so.  To include other Vets as well.

     

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Good singing voice.

    • #4
  5. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    God bless them all !    (Especially you Dad)

     

    • #5
  6. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Looks like Mr. (Paratrooper) Speranza has a shillelagh.  A wee bit of extra credit.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I did a little research on Vince Speranza. Turns out he had an eventful war.

    On the second day of the siege, a friend named Joe Willis was wounded with shrapnel in both legs and brought to a makeshift combat hospital in a blown-out church. When Speranza tracked him down, the fellow paratrooper asked him to get him something to drink.

    Speranza explained they were surrounded and no supplies were coming in. The soldier asked him to check a devastated tavern nearby.

    Speranza found a working beer tap there. He filled his helmet — the same one he had used as a foxhole toilet — and made two trips to the wounded in the church. He was caught by an angry major and told he would be shot if he did not stop, for fear he would kill the wounded.

    Visiting Bastogne in 2009, Speranza found his foxhole still there, but Dutch and Belgian military officials told him that the legend of the soldier filling his helmet with beer for the wounded is still told — and had been immortalized on the label of Bastogne’s Airborne beer.

    The beer is typically consumed from a ceramic helmet.

    Occasionally, a hero gets some.

    • #7
  8. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    Percival (View Comment):
    I did a little research on Vince Speranza.

    That’s thoroughly badass.  Thanks, Percival.

     

    • #8
  9. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    You can get yourself a helmet mug and a beer here.

     

    • #9
  10. Boss Mongo Member
    Boss Mongo
    @BossMongo

    9thDistrictNeighbor (View Comment):
    You can get yourself a helmet mug and a beer here.

    I love you, man.

    • #10
  11. harrisventures Inactive
    harrisventures
    @harrisventures

    Those Soldiers with Woodpecker lips made the world safe for Democracy.

    For a little while anyway.

    We need more men with Woodpecker lips to stand up for the trials to come.

    And Brother, they are coming…

    • #11
  12. Nanda Panjandrum Member
    Nanda Panjandrum
    @

    harrisventures (View Comment):
    Those Soldiers with Woodpecker lips made the world safe for Democracy.

    For a little while anyway.

    We need more men with Woodpecker lips to stand up for the trials to come.

    And Brother, they are coming…

    The trials and the men are both on their way…For example

    • #12
  13. Judithann Campbell Member
    Judithann Campbell
    @

    Nanda Panjandrum (View Comment):

    harrisventures (View Comment):
    Those Soldiers with Woodpecker lips made the world safe for Democracy.

    For a little while anyway.

    We need more men with Woodpecker lips to stand up for the trials to come.

    And Brother, they are coming…

    The trials and the men are both on their way…

    My 5 year old nephew gives me incredible hope for the future; from the time he started talking, he said that he wanted to be a fireman. A year or so ago, I asked him if he still wanted to be a fireman. “Yes” he said. Then he paused for a moment, and said, “I want to save people, but I can’t do that right now because I am just a boy.”

    On another occasion, we were all talking about some 90 year old who jumped out of a plane: my Dad is in his 90’s, so I looked at my nephew, and said, “What do you think? Should Grandpa jump out of a plane?” He thought about it for a minute, and then he looked at me very intently and said, “When I get big, I am going to jump out of planes.”

    He has a heart of gold: they have him playing soccer, and he is good, but whenever another kid gets knocked down, he stops playing and runs over to the knocked down kid to see if he is ok. Drives my brother nuts, but it is so cute.

    Little boys are perfect just the way they are. If people would just leave them alone, and let them be who they are, everything would be fine.

    • #13
  14. Hank Rhody, Doctor of Rock Contributor
    Hank Rhody, Doctor of Rock
    @HankRhody

    Judithann Campbell (View Comment):
    Little boys are perfect just the way they are. If people would just leave them alone, and let them be who they are, everything would be fine.

    As a younger brother I feel I have to dispute this statement.

    • #14
  15. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    I have to share a funny story from my lovely bride’s Dad’s brother.   Her uncle.  (My uncle-in-Law ?).   I only met him once.    He was already very sick from the cancer that would take his life.     But he wanted to meet the man who thought to marry his favorite niece.   (I guess I passed muster).  He had been in WW2. Airborne. (I didn’t catch the unit). He told this story…

    During training, his first ‘jump’ was a training exercise where you wore the gear but jumped from a fixed tower.    Four stories high.    Instead of using the parachute, your harness got hooked to some device that simulated a real drop and lowered you to the ground.   The hookup was two carabiners on the device, each hooked through a D-ring on the right and left shoulder strap of your harness.

    Hundreds of guys in line, shuffling forward, waiting their turn.    Finally he gets to the tower.   Up the steps.   At the top is some harried sergeant clipping guys in and tossing them off.    When Uncle’s turn finally came the sergeant only got one ‘beaner clipped in!   Uncle  was clutching the empty D-ring shouting “Hey!  Hey!   I’m not hooked up!”     Sargent says “Oh, don’t worry.”   And waving his arm out over the long line of trainees below “We got lot’sa guys.” And shoved him over the edge!    He came down on one strap, swearing a blue streak.    He said after that, every other jump was easy.

    • #15
  16. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Ekosj (View Comment):
    I have to share a funny story from my lovely bride’s Dad’s brother.

    That is funny.

    • #16
  17. Metalheaddoc Member
    Metalheaddoc
    @Metalheaddoc

    I bet that guy needed a separate parachute just for his balls.

    • #17
  18. dajoho Member
    dajoho
    @dajoho

    I can’t like this enough.  Those dudes were harder than….

    Woodpecker lips

    Superman’s kneecap

    Chinese trigonometry

     

    • #18
  19. jzdro Member
    jzdro
    @jzdro

    Percival (View Comment):
    I did a little research on Vince Speranza.

    Thank you, thank you, @percival.  You know, his name, Vincente Speranza, means conquering hope.

    • #19
  20. jzdro Member
    jzdro
    @jzdro

    as in the hope that conquers

    • #20
  21. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    jzdro (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    I did a little research on Vince Speranza.

    Thank you, thank you, @percival. You know, his name, Vincente Speranza, means conquering hope.

    No, I didn’t. Thank you.

    • #21
  22. ST Member
    ST
    @

    Percival (View Comment):

    I did a little research on Vince Speranza. Turns out he had an eventful war.

    On the second day of the siege, a friend named Joe Willis was wounded with shrapnel in both legs and brought to a makeshift combat hospital in a blown-out church. When Speranza tracked him down, the fellow paratrooper asked him to get him something to drink.

    Speranza explained they were surrounded and no supplies were coming in. The soldier asked him to check a devastated tavern nearby.

    Speranza found a working beer tap there. He filled his helmet — the same one he had used as a foxhole toilet — and made two trips to the wounded in the church. He was caught by an angry major and told he would be shot if he did not stop, for fear he would kill the wounded.

    Visiting Bastogne in 2009, Speranza found his foxhole still there, but Dutch and Belgian military officials told him that the legend of the soldier filling his helmet with beer for the wounded is still told — and had been immortalized on the label of Bastogne’s Airborne beer.

    The beer is typically consumed from a ceramic helmet.

    Occasionally, a hero gets some.

    Went to Bastogne and drank that beer out of the ‘helmet’ but never knew the story until now.  Seems like a righteous MoFo, Mr. Speranza.

    • #22
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