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Touching.. :)
My dad used to play Airwolf (NES, of all games) with me back in the day.. That was the closest I ever got to a relative (besides my brother) playing a videogame with me.
He would land the chopper to rescue the hostages, because for some reason I sucked at doing that, and I would play the other 90% of the game. :P
That's great, I hope I'm like that with my kid(s)/ grand kids.
Thanks guys, that means a lot. I'm glad other people dug it.
He was such a cool guy with an interesting life. He graduated Harvard at age 16 with two doctorates, got married to my Grandmother (who we just had to put in a home because her alzheimer's got so bad. It's a nice place though, not a crooked one) so she would wait around for him, and immediately went to WWII. He was an officer (he did ROTC in College) and lost his entire crew while approaching Normandy (really cool story, but just gruesome to hear it told. Some of his friends were close to some barrel of Tar that was on board and they were frozen solid in the position they died in when there were explosions around them. My Grampa had a war Flashback when watching Han Solo get frozen in Carbonite. I always thought that was kinda cool.) and eventually was determined the most important person to reach France for intelligence purposes. He did all the math to calculate enemy positions and broke enemy code all with a slide-rule. Completely hardcore. One day while in France, doing Math calculations for the Army, the Fountains turned on in the Center of Paris (thus signaling the war was over, fountains are an easy bombing target from planes) and he immediately broke down and started crying without being able to stop. He said it was the first time he had cried since he was a little kid. The only other time he ever cried what I knew of was at the end of Saving Private Ryan, when the man asked his wife "Have I been a good man?". He was escorted to France the same way Private Ryan was escorted, and apparently men gave their lives to get him there safely. He was always a stong man in many ways for all of us, and I can only hope to be that way for my family.
Anyway, he will be missed.
PS: Oh, and my Dad played Life Force from beginning to end with me a bunch of times. We always needed the 30 lives code, but we never used them all. We had every level planned out.
That's kickass and pretty heartwarming, Master. I'm glad you posted that...now I'm having fond memories of my grandma buying me my NES when my parents were having trouble just keeping food on the table. Bless her heart.
You're grandfather was the very definition of ruggedness <that's a very good thing, in case you're reading that like, "What's that mean?">. Damn, it kinda makes me sick that so many dudes like us today are little bitches compared to dudes in his day. My stepgrandfather also was in Normandy, but he never ever talks about it, and I respect his reasoning for not wanting to do so. I have the utmost respect for all military personel, but damn... your grandfather was something, man. Graduated Harvard at sixteen?! Graduating Harvard in and of itself is an incredible undertaking! Decoding Nazi intel? With a fucking slide rule?! Hats off, dude, totally. Shit, I wish I could have met him...
I concur with the sentiments in this thread.
Anyway, what medals did he get awarded?
I honestly don't know. I can check the records the next time I visit the East Coast, or I can ask my Mom. I'm sure she knows.Quote:
Originally Posted by AstroBlue
Thanks again guys, all the nice comments really make me happy. It's nice to know people he never met appreciate the things he did while he was alive.
Also, after the war, before he went into Computer Programming (so he could work form home and spend more time with his wife) he worked for NASA as a rocket scientist until after the Apollo program. (For a while there it was like Tom Hanks' carreer was following his life. He wasn't AFAIK ever stranded on an island though)
You can imagine how nervous my father was meeting him for the first time. "Just so you know, my dad is really smart." "It's not like he's a rocket scientist" "Actually..."
Was he like a "Jack of all Trades" kind of soldier? He seems like the kind of guy who could tear apart an enemy soldier, armed or not, considering you said he was a strong guy. Kind of like Solid Snake, but with a Harvard degree.
Something like that. He was a beast of a man with huge muscles, a pot belly and popeye-like forearms. I saw pictures of him when he was younger and he looked like a linebacker. I'll find a pic and post it. But yeah, he was a jack of all trades, and I'm sure you didn't want to mess with him. He was such a gentle person though, I can't imagine him ever getting into a fight, but he did what he had to do in the war I suppose.
He said they used to kill time during downtime (in the war) betting on things he couldn't crush in one of his hands. He said he won a bunch of pocket money crushing things in his hands. That is pretty rediculous. I don't think he ever even worked out.
Kung Fu grip indeed.
Man, a lot of this is starting to sound like Fairy Tales, and legend, but it is all true, I swear. I'll post his memoirs when I get them, next time I'm on the East Coast. They are great stuff. His intellect was second to his sense of humor, so they are a great read.
That first post is one of the best posts I've ever seen on a message board. Great stories, man.