WWII Buffs

[Salacious]

I heard a great interview on the way to work this morning with Ken Burns the producer and director of forthcoming documentary on WWII that will be showing on PBS in seven parts called The War (http://www.pbs.org/thewar/).

I nearly teared up driving to work. It sounds as though it will be one of those you want to see. It's done at the level of personal accounts rather than about glorified generals. They looked a four different families from across America to tell the stories that for too long have been kept silent. It won't be long and the men and women that fought in that war to keep our freedoms will no longer be with us to tell the stories that they continue to live with and don't share.

I'm going to be giving it a view. This is definitely must see TV.






My geeky PBS viewing side is showing. ;) I felt the need to share. Mark your calendar it starts the 23rd of September.

[citrus]

TY salacious. My eyes will be aimed at the guide to find the showing times.

[PantyFanatic]

My geeky PBS viewing side is showing. I felt the need to share.
Thank you Sal. I've had my calendar marked for some time now.

You are right that the kids who did that for us are leaving quickly now. WWII was a real and big part of my parents life and for my family and hence for me. The people in their 80s today can only try to tell us the story of what they lived and Burns does a good job of presenting (http://www.pbs.org/thewar/video_clips.htm) that story.

[gekkogecko]

Yeah, I'm going to need to watch that, if my schedule permits.

[Steph]

Ken Burns is a ridiculously good documentarian. His research on jazz and baseball are now definitive viewing for anyone interested in said topics. I'm envious of this guy's genius!

[wyndhy]

i'm not a buff but i like to learn and listen. i'll be tuning in as well. ty for the heads up sal

[scotzoidman]

One of the regrets of my life is that I didn't get the Sarge to write down his memories of his life before he passed on, including the time he spent fighting the war that made me possible...

I'll make a point of watching this...

[wrestlemark]

thanks sal ........heres to ya :cheers:

[Salacious]

I'm glad I shared. :D

[PantyFanatic]

:bump:

Today is the day.

I am praying this isn't being over hyped. :wish: If the result is half as meaningful and inclusive as the interest and endorsements from ALL respected view points, this will become as close to a historic document as any 'winner' has ever presented. :shrug:
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/mark_dawidziak/index.ssf?/base/other/11905373596490.xml&coll=2

[PantyFanatic]

WOW :starwars:

[Oldfart]

It'll be a little more relevant for me than "Band of Brothers". Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft bombed the City I now live in over 50 times over 2 years.

[jseal]

A good start.

[Oldfart]

A good start.

Bombing Darwin?

A nice friend you're turning into, young jseal!!

[jseal]

:rofl:

[PantyFanatic]

For those that are following "The War", and after talking with my own kids after the first episode, I am compelled to add some comments, especially for our younger people who may not have had those times embedded in their early family life. I have no delusions of supplementing Ken Burns but I can add recollections that I just have a need to babble out at the moment. Perhaps my mothers waning days has stirred some reminiscence for me.

I had to provide one unexplained point in the series to my kids as to why the movie houses of each town was emphasized and the 'Movie Tone' clips included was the only source for pictures of what was happening in the rest of the world. Other than poor quality news paper pics and few quality stills in magazines, the weekly news reels at the local theater was the equivalent of the nightly TV news. Most all information about your loved ones that you knew was in harms way, came through letters that were weeks in transit. Words came threw the radio and the visuals came with news papers and in 3-5 minutes clips at the movie house. Media and communication was at a very different era.

One of those freeze-flash memories of a very little boy is standing atop the toilet seat and having my hair combed after a scrubbing and being dressed up because my father was going to make a long distance call from Texas before heading for Japan. I have no idea how old I was or of the phone call, but I remember it was important and exciting for the family.

I know that war was not a background thought for anybody on the home front. It was an all day, every day part of life. My mother worked in a defense plant while my dad was gone and I recall old ration stamps being in the corners of many things for years after the war. The uniforms and olive drab gear that floated the attic and closets and basements of my home and my uncles homes, the Lugers and sabers that were locked away and only brought out when the adults talked, was just part of every home, ..............wasn't it?

My entire civilian life has been working in an industrial city that now is taking it's last gasps, but spent my career involved with many small companies and learning under the tutelage of veterans or the people that didn't go but became part of the defense machine, almost without exception. Few companies were not involved with super-human production of war supplies. Only now am I aware of the gradual disappearance of the tangible equipment and verbal environment that just became a subconscious part of me.

I have one of my earliest pics that was taken with rationed film. LOL

[jseal]

... The uniforms and olive drab gear that floated the attic and closets and basements of my home and my uncles homes, the Lugers and sabers that were locked away and only brought out when the adults talked, was just part of every home, ..............wasn't it?

...
Yes. It was.

[scotzoidman]

I have one of my earliest pics that was taken with rationed film. LOL
And still had your full ration of hair? lol

I remember Ken Burns saying months ago, while he was still editing material for the film, that the main thing he saw different today from then was how the "Home Front" mentality prevailed during WWII. Over a decade had passed from V-J day to the day I was born, so the War was not even the latest entry into the history books at school for me...but as I grew & learned, I caught many glimpses into how that time had left its mark on the family that raised me. My mother had many pics of herself & others from that time, & I see in them a beautiful young woman, in her prime & with flaming red hair that surely broke some hearts, trying to find a life for herself, but there's a barely concealed anguish in her eyes, knowing that she dare not get too close, too deeply in love, with these dashing young men in their uniforms...the knowledge that they could go & never come back seems like a barrier to everything she may have wanted in life.

[Coaster]

I've caught the first 2 episodes. And my one thought is do we have the infrastructure today in maufacturing to be able to unite against such attacks? It seems like we import so much that was made with foreign hands. Should we bring some of that back to our country? Has NAPTHA (?) really benefitted America?

[PantyFanatic]

Tonight was some saddly enlightning facts. :(

[Teddy Bear]

Ty for this thread... I saw it at apx 7:45pm the first night and the show was to start at 8pm. I quick called my almost 85 yr old Dad and told him about it. I said it may not be any good but you may want to check it out. We have watched it "together" (he lives about 200 miles from me) every night. And he's called in the morning to reminiscence. He said "that fella (Ken Burns) did a pretty good job, lots of background facts." lol. Its brought back alot of memories (good & bad) for him. Wish I could be with him tonight for 'D-Day'.

[Oldfart]

Yes, but has jseal stopped bombing Darwin yet?

[jseal]

The bombing will continue until moral improves! :ranting:

[Oldfart]

Define improvement.

[jseal]

Oldfart,

Dang! You do know how to ask the hard questions!

[Oldfart]

It takes practice. 'Gnite.

[Teddy Bear]

I cried when Babe's family got "the telegram".

Can not imagine what that would be like.

[PantyFanatic]

So did they :(

[Mae]

My dad was a musician in the Army, I believe, and was stationed in India during the War. My stepfather was in the Navy.

A small aside, here. My mother and stepfather dated in high school in Colorado. Then, he joined the Navy. In 1971, he finally found my mother, after hunting for her for years. They got married in 1972.

[scotzoidman]

My daddy had already been a soldier for about a dozen years when Pearl was attacked, in fact, he had been stationed there in 1930 during an early tour of duty (& learned to body surf there...always a tough mental image for me to get my head around!) He was in the Army Air Corps, Quartermaster (Supply), so he never had to be anywhere in any direct line of fire (lucky for me, I suppose, or I might not have been)...I do know he served in Peru, New Guinea, & several other locales in the South Pacific.

[PantyFanatic]

FUBAR

It was interesting to see what I had heard, for the first time.

[Oldfart]

FUBAR?

A close cousin to SNAFU. Incident versus culture.

[PantyFanatic]

SNAFU's sister, _ _ Beyond All Recognition, was not as pretty but as much a slut to everybody.

[PantyFanatic]

61,000,000 (http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/casualty.html)


We are such a capable and clever specie. :rolleyes2

[fd4130]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll be watching :cboy:

[PantyFanatic]

You're late. Tonight was the last episode, but they are showing the entire series over locally. Check you PBS schedule to see if your area is doing that.

You may want to make a point to catch them. Very different prospective of what the people that DID it saw.

My daughter wonders what Ken Burns production in Germany or Japan would look like. :confused:

[dicksbro]

Rats. I'd wanted to watch it but it just didn't work out. :(

[Oldfart]

Did PF make a backup?

Did I hear a BOHICA in the background?

[scotzoidman]

I was informed & enlightened by just about every minute I was able to watch. The problem was I had a lot of schedule conflicts kept me from catching it all...plus the fact that it was on PBS, without the frequent commercial interuption, meant that bathroom breaks were simply not in the budget...