War Stories Ain’t All Alike – Dedication
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Ordinarily, dedications are not likely to find a spot within the Hubpages articles. This dedication belongs.
Many moons ago I spent a considerable amount of time and effort toward survival in the military. The "Military" is appropriately used here because, of my years in service as an enlisted person – a "grunt" as we were often called – I spent lots of time with the army, with the navy and with the air force while serving in the latter branch.
As were so many youngsters when the 1950s arrived, I was of a young age and quite ripe for the "draft," as selective service was known. Along came the Korean War while we were attempting to learn a trade or gain some sort of education for ourselves, but it was uncertain whether we were to be able to do for ourselves as we should do or to do for our country as we must do. It was a shaky time for American males of our general age.
With that in mind, I decided to "join up" when 1951 came along and my draft status was ripe. I contacted the recruiter, a grizzled old master sergeant named Yanchunis who signed me up for a mandatory 8-year enlistment and the basic training that would start it off.
As he explained it to me, I should choose to arrive at the basic training facility on a Friday so that I might have the entire weekend to "look the place over." (It is acceptable to be naive when one is young and stupid!)
So, here is the dedication to the forthcoming eBook, "All War Stories Ain’t Alike." It is complete and verbatim, just as it is going to be in the eBook.
To every sergeant and officer who tried to torment me and to make a military man of me, to every medic who pumped my hide full of shots and vaccinations, to Dr. Hoofer, Dr. Rice, Corpsman Jones, and the others who preserved me until I learned how to spell, to the general who installed bugle call loudspeakers all over a base where once I was stationed, and to the good nuns at Incarnate Word College in San Antonio, Texas, who were the best commanding officers I ever had while in the service.
I want you to help me get back in again. By now, you are all of very high rank and station, and you should wield great influence toward my return.
My old uniforms still fit. I’ve been secretly practicing marching for years while walking the dog (which, by the way, is named "War Dog"). I’ve learned how to follow up on SOS with antacid. My wife has done a good job of correcting me on my erstwhile sloppy saluting. I miss you all. Do what you can for me.
In any event, this book is for you and for Pollard, Milam, Cherry, Randolph, Lamb, Breen, Abbott, Lewis, King, Walker, Noguera, Harrell, Green, Rotondo, Miranda, Olsen, Keller, Lindsay, Yanchunis, Meyer, Heilman, Lee, Ford, Hagedorn, Posipanka, Mitchell, McIlraith, Fenter, Garcia, Konwinski, Brown, Herrin, Mandel, Burch, Quijano, and the thousands of others who helped me learn that good friends and fine people pop up in the strangest places.
Maybe, most of all, this book is for Master Sergeant Yanchunis, that outrageous recruiter, who was the first among them all to teach me a lesson.
You are going to meet up with many, perhaps all, of these fine people in this eBook. Although it is not possible for me to be with them once more, I will experience many pleasant reunions with them right on these pages. You will get to meet them, too, and I hope that you will enjoy their company as much as I have enjoyed it.
Copyright 2010 G. Kilthau
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Hi Duchess - This thing is well underway; that is, most of the stories are written already and what I have to do is to edit them as I line them all up. Another thing that needs doing has to be done by Hubpages. Some months back I was working with the folks who supply Hubpages with its software to paginate Hubs for printout and for PDF preparation. The printout stuff works OK but the PDF files fail to separate paragraphs (spacing is missing). I think that the software folks gave up on the project. It would definitely make it easier to eBook things if they had fixed the problem. As it is, I am using my Serif software to do the job. eBooking is lots of fun,k no matter. Thanks for the nice comment.
Gus :-)))
Sounds interesting. I'd love to read Gus' version of the The Things They Carried. Yours might be better. Good luck with getting it all together.
Hi Doug - Jambo put up a pretty good review of Tim O'Brien's book, The Things..., several months ago. Tim's story is truly a war story, and about a war in which our country should never have been. My own and current effort here is toward the "non-war" war stories, the oddball stuff that goes on in the military, war or peace, rain or shine. This, of course, gives rise to the fear that my tales might cause some readers to mistakenly feel that "my" military was one big lark, which, of course it was not.As things turned out, my job was to help people heal and to keep some from dying, and those were the folks who had quite the opposite task but who, fortunately, were not aiming their stuff at me. Thanks for the good luck wishes. Appreciated.
Gus :-)))
Looking forward to this ebook's birth, Gus. Be sure to let us know the date.
Good Doctor bj - So far there are 20 chapters completed, several of which are on Hubpages. I plan to put all of them here. The next step is to finish the Redneck Tales thing. After that to add to and finish up the Dumb Poems. If I live that long, I will put them together into a single eBook, possibly adding on an audio swan song at the end. This is a fun project making use of Hubpages (mostly for critique by the counting of readers), plus Serif software, Audacity software, and several others. The war stories deal is a wee bit unique in that the tales all have some sort of true event origin onto which I apply more lies than a person could carry with a large moving van - but that is the fun of the thing. If you are considering the making of an eBook of your own (which I think that you would find easy) I will be happy to give you a blow by blow version of all of the errors I am planning on making as I put my own eBook together. Let me know...
Gus :-)))
Hello again Duchess - I failed to mention that there is free software available to all that allows PDF file preparation right on your computer. The free Serif versions apparently do not have the PDF feature, but "Open Office" does. There are perhaps others, but that is one that I know about. I will continue to use my Serif stuff because I am well used to it, but if I did not have that, I would not hesitate to go to "Open Office."
Gus :-)))
I agree Gus Open Office is a great resource for those who cannot afford to purchase similar in Mircrosoft. I have downloaded for many of the seniors I teach.
Good morning Duchess - It is good to know folks smart enough to understand that "free" does not mean "junk."
Gus :-)))
Gus, if I'm understanding correctly I think this is a great idea and look forward to it. I've crossed your path several times and meant to check out your writings. No time like now, I suppose. Best to you and I'll be looking for this to come to fruition, 50
Howdy 50 - I can put the big "ditto" onto your welcome comment. FYI, the project is moving right along. Hope to complete things by the turn of the year.
Gus :-)))
Great intention...I hope it has been realized by now. I enjoyed your Hub and the description of your book. MY father was career Air Force and as a historian I wrote extensively about the American GI's who liberated the Nazi concentration camps, so I appreciate anyone who writes about our military.
Hi PhD...
Those days at the end of WWII were startling days, and the liberated were most grateful. After the war I worked nights in a school-town hospital and got to know one of those who had been freed, a tailor by the name of Leo Neumann. He had tried several times to escape from the concentration camp, only to be recaptured and badly handled. What amazed me was the seeming lack of acknowledgement by the German people as to what they had perpetrated during the concentration camp years. During my assignments in Germany I worked with many of the locals, and I do not recall a one of them ever telling me that "bad things" had gone on. Their attitude was that they really needed more time to complete the job.
As to the eBook projected to be put together in the "dedication" here above, it is still underway. The first part of it has been split out from the whole with the collecting of some tales by others who served at one time or another as did I at a huge, though really dingy, basic training base in the middle of New York State. The tales are in an eBook now in its final stages of preparation, one to be named "Once Upon an Air Force." You can read most of the author's stories as listed in their HubPages profile, http://sampsonveteran.hubpages.com/ .
Thank you for your welcome comment about this first of the "different" war stories. The collection is being added to and will get here provided that I hold together long enough.
Gus :-)))
Your description of the German unwillingness to accept any responsibility for what was done in their midst parallels what most historians have found. The German people for the most part feigned a sort of amnesia about what really happened while the Nazis were in power. Quite amazing, especially when one realizes how many camps there were and how they were located all across Germany.
Glad to hear the projected eBook is still under construction and that "Once Upon an Air Force" is in the final stages of preparation. Thanks for the link to the stories. I will check them out. And here's hoping you hold together long enough. :)
Theresa
Theresa (phdast7) - You are welcome for that link. Another one that should be of some interest to an historian is http://www.sampsonvets.com . At the top of its "Navigation Page" are a number of links to photo pages of its museum and various outdoor exhibits, lots of base history photos, and even an interesting "Then and Now" section that shows photos of many of the SAFBVA members as they were "back then" and as they show today. Recently I have begun a linked section for the Web folks portraying some reunion and various events, such as the construction of the big stainless steel "Soaring Falcon" memorial monument and lots of photos of a part of the old base that the GIs had always sought to avoid - its hospital area.
As to the German natives' amnesias, I suppose that I have never met a German who did not think that they were continually proper and right about everything. Being one of those myself, I have to admit that I never have made a mistake or done anything for which I could not be proud ( ! ).
Gus :-)))
Gus- Thanks for the sampson-vets link. The Then and Now section sounds like it would be a wonderful addition to any museum or archive. I will definitely take a look at the section you have been working on. Good point about the seemingly typical German mentality....on my father's side of the family I am Polish and German.
Theresa
Duchess OBlunt Level 4 Commenter 18 months ago
Gus! What a Wonderful Idea. I can't wait to see the finished product! You have such a wonderfully unique approach to everything, and this is no different.
Go for it! I'll be first in line to buy the book!