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| IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Famous title comes to consoles. |
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#2
08-28-2009, 12:26 AM
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Interesting stories!...it's always awesome to talk to a vet. I have so much respect for anyone who risks their life for their country. I had a new respect for my father when we sat down and he told me some of his Vietnam stories...anyway those really wouldn't apply here but some of my favorites I've found online about WW2 airmen are the ones below:
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#3
08-28-2009, 12:36 AM
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I also have a Vietnam vet in my family as well and I'm apperently the only person who my uncle shared his experience with after 30 years.
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#4
08-28-2009, 01:09 AM
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Although the wrong era, I'd certainly still be interested in the Vietnam stories. I don't think anyone's going to complain - we're all here because we love planes!
 EDIT: Forgot to thank the other posters too. Great stories. I never get bored of hearing personal accounts. Extraordinary experiences.
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#5
08-28-2009, 02:09 AM
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Forgive me for I do not have any aviators in my family. I am the first and currently only one. He was a sniper back in Vietnam. I do not know what platoon or group he was in. He told me how him and other group of snipers where counter sniping over a villiage one time. He saw a Vietnamese sniper light a ciggarette and took him out very quickly. Then a few seconds later, a sniper got him in the hand. He said he didn't flinch and used the angle of the bullet wound to locate the other sniper and got a head shot before the other sniper could fire a second time. Another story he told me was when he and his platoon across were returning to camp and had to cross a creek on the way there and were quickly being surrounded by enemy troops. He had to stay behind for the night and quickly dug a hole in the mud with his helmet and covered it with bamboo and leaves. He told me about how he could hear troops walking over his hole and their shadows dragging across the moonlight shining over him. He could hear them talking and laughing to each other and that at one point, the troops stopped and rested over him. One of the troops walked directly over him and stopped and it seemed to my uncle that the soldier looked down directly into his eyes. He waited all night and they eventually left and he returned to his base unharmmed. Another thing I need to mention is that on his mission that got him a ticket home, he and his whole platoon were ambushed and were all lined up and shot and he and another soldier barely survived. He was shot in the hand(again), one in the chest, one in the leg, and another scraped his head. These are the only stories I can recall right now.
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#6
08-28-2009, 04:30 AM
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I don't have anything really good so ... the videos below are the most interesting I could remember watching on Vietnam vets . It's from a documentary called "first kill"....the section I've posted is pretty disturbing. I'd recommend watching the FULL video on youtube parts 1-8 to anyone interested in the psychology of war...kinda gives you a different perspective on things. Anyway, watch from about (3:12 - end) of the first posted video. and then from (beginning - to around 4:55) of the second video. Then imagine having this vet for an uncle!!!! (you have to turn the volume way up the audio levels are low)
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#7
08-28-2009, 04:53 AM
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awsome stories!! keep em coming and i dont care what war or what kind of fighting, hell my uncle ( diff side of the family than my gramps) was a cobra helicopter pilot in veitnam, he also was shot down 2 or 3 times and survived.
one of the few stories i can remember from him was when he and his flight were on a search and destroy mission following the trails through the rivers and rice fields ( he said becase of all the rice fields after the VC would move a supply line of boats through you could litterally follow their trail to them in the water the wider the trail the fresher) when they came upon a little manhole sized concrete bunker as he called it, and right as they got up to it a Vietcong popped out with an AK and shot up his heli enough that he was forced to crash land i think it was about 500 yards from the little bunker. he said he imediately pulled out his fire arm ( which was a thompson that he carried in the cockpit) to try to fight them off till he and his gunner/co-pilot could get picked up as he could already see more VC climbing out of the small bunker and coming towards them, but his wingman was able to hold them off long enough for another flight of cobras and hueys to neutralize the bunker and the VC before my uncle was in serious rick from them that day, and rescue the downed pilots ill post more of my grampa and my uncle as i recall them correctly and thanks for all the replys guys, keep em coming
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#8
08-28-2009, 01:15 AM
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I remembered another, this was when my Italian Grandfather got shot down for the first time.
He told me that it was North Africa, and he was just starting out. It was only his fifth or so sortie on the continent, and he hadn't got any kills yet, so he was always talking to those who had, getting ideas. Well I guess on this sortie, he and six others including his flight leader took off and were going just for a little training/hunting sortie. Well as they flew over the desert, they kept their canopies open since it gave them better visibility and kept them cooler. Suddenly he said that as he scanned the skies above, he spotted a flight of Hurricanes, and they seemed to be heading back to their base. Well he called the flight leader, and they waited to see what the Hurricanes were all about. But I guess one of the green horns got a bit jumpy, and started towards the Hurricanes, not wanting to avoid them. Well I guess what my Grandfather didn't see, or anyone else, was that above the Hurricanes, was another smaller flight of Hurricanes. And as the green horned pilot went in to attack, the Hurricanes above swooped down and they shot him down. Luckily the guy bailed out, but was captured by British troops, and I guess became a POW. Well as the already attacking Hurricanes came down, the flight leader told my Grandfather to stick with him, and make sure everything stayed o.k. And so my Grandfather, not having that much experience did so, but quickly saw another one of his friends who died in the crash, get shot down and just plummet to the ground in a smoking wrecked plane. Then he usually went on about how he missed his friend, and was glad that when he was shot down, his plane didn't completely lock up on him, allowing him some ability to keep the plane going. Anyway, I guess as my Grandfather followed the flight leader, a Hurricane got on his tail, and hit him with some .303 rounds. I guess he broke off, and tried to evade the Hurricane, that as he used to say, "KEPT PUMPING HOLES INTO MY GODDAMNED GOOD PLANE!" I guess as the chase continued, my Grandfather looked back and saw that a huge hole had been torn in to his fuselage, and that there were hundreds it seemed of little holes from the Hurricanes machine-guns. But since he wasn't fully taught in how to evade or something, he made the wrong move of trying to climb, giving the Hurricane a perfect shot at him. Lucky for him, the bullets landed around him, and not in him like he thought would surely happen since the Hurricane had peppered his fuselage. I guess the Hurricane pilot was really trying to kill my Grandfather, but his guns jammed or something and he had to break off, leaving the fight. And as my Grandfather looked around, seeing his peppered plane full of holes and tears, he started for home. He never said he was afraid that he would be killed, but that he never had time to be frightened, but I think he really was, and that was just his Italian macho getting in the way. But anyway, as he flew away, he got out of the combat zone fairly quickly, but it seemed that the Hurricane had damaged his control panel and none of the numbers seemed right etc. and once again as my Grandfather used to say. "I must have looked like I was flying some swiss cheese, but I in reality I was flying a brick." And while he flew back towards base, he started getting the idea to bail out as the engine started to make a terrible noise, and he knew he was loosing oil pressure. But when he looked down towards the ground, he realized that it was to close, so he decided that it was best to lower the landing gear, and just try to get back with what he had. Unlucky for him, his gear wasn't working, and only one wheel came down. So he was forced to bring it back up, and belly land. He used to always tell me that when he belly landed, it was like driving down a seriously bumpy road, with no ability to stop with the breaks or steer in any direction. Well after he belly landed, he hurried from his plane, realizing that he was leaking oil, and that the plane could explode at any minute. 24hrs later or so, he was back at his airfield, sun burned like nothing before, and with him nothing but his torn aviator hat that he wore just around all the time. He was told that he couldn't fly for a few days, that his sunburn was fairly bad, but back then Italian guys didn't care. So my Grandfather wrote a letter to his future wife/my Grandmother, asking for a light thin shirt. I guess it helped, because his sunburn was still bad, but it wasn't irritated by his other shirt.
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