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Off to College

Discussion in 'Free Fire Zone' started by Smiley 2.0, Aug 17, 2015.

  1. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    I feel bad for it has been way too long since I have been here and heard from all you amazing gents. It has been a very trying semester; more difficult than last semester. I have been taking a couple of history classes this semester one of which is on the Arab Israeli Conflict and it is a very fascinating class. One of my current projects in that class is writing a 15 page research paper on a topic of our choosing relating to the Arab Israeli conflict and I chose to do mine on the Jewish terror groups the Irgun and LEHI/Stern Gang. It has been a very interesting topic to do research on. Pretty soon it will be finals week and I will be heading home for the summer. A couple things I've got to look forward to are a possible internship opportunities at a museum in Cincinnati and being able to meet two World War Two veterans at my dad's work one of which was a medic who landed on the first wave at Omaha. I'm really looking forward to meeting these amazing men. I hope all is well with everyone and I have seen that the format of the site is different and I do like it!

    Cheers!
    Dave
     
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  2. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Good to see you back in town, and also good to hear that you haven't flunked out yet (things like that happen you know). Good luck with the term paper and upcoming finals too. When you get the time, pop back in for a bit. Enjoy your summer too.
     
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  3. KJ Jr

    KJ Jr Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like everything is going well Smiley. Good to hear from you.
     
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  4. LRusso216

    LRusso216 Graybeard Staff Member

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    Hi Dave. Sounds like you've been a busy little beaver. Make sure you let us know how your meetings with these gentlemen go. Enjoy yourself, if you have time.
     
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  5. TD-Tommy776

    TD-Tommy776 Man of Constant Sorrow

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    It's great to see you here again, Dave. Very happy to hear your studies are going well.
     
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  6. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    Update: I mentioned that I will be meeting two World War Two veterans this summer one of which was a medic that landed with the first wave at Omaha Beach on D-Day. I found out that the other veteran I will be meeting fought in the Battle of Anzio. I also found out that there is a speaker coming my dad's work in June who was a witness to the attack on Pearl Harbor. So I will be seeing and meeting a lot of great people this summer! :)

    Cheers,
    Dave
     
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  7. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Ist ID?
     
  8. CAW1

    CAW1 Member

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    This thread feels like a 2001: A Space Odessy scene. HAL9000: "Hello Dave"......"It's nice to be working with you again." . "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"......................beep.
     
  9. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    I believe so. This is what I have been told. When I get to meet him I will ask what unit he was with just to make sure.
     
  10. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    I've gotta ask you all something. As I mentioned for one of my history classes we have a term paper that can be on a topic of our choosing as long as it relates to class' topic which is the Arab Israeli Conflict. For my topic I chose a Jewish terror group called the Irgun. I gotta be honest, before I took this class I had no idea this group even existed. and over the course of my research I have learned A LOT of interesting things, but it seems like a lot of people aren't aware that they existed. One of the Israeli Prime ministers Menachem Begin was the leader of the Irgun and organized a lot of what they did and a lot of their actions run parallel to what terrorists today are doing. Just out of curiosity were any of you aware that this group existed and what they had done? If I hadn't taken this class, I would have never known that they even existed.
     
  11. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    It's come up in some of our discussions of the situation there so most of the regulars have probably heard of it. How much detail is another matter.
     
  12. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    I honestly thought that this summer I would have a little more free time but as an adult I should have known. I got a job at a lawn care care company this summer and would work workdays that would usually last 9-12 hours. When I would get home I would be too exhausted to stop by here. I guess that is part of getting older. I mentioned that I would be meeting several very interesting people this summer. One was a witness to Pearl Harbor, the other was a medic who landed at Omaha with one of the earliest waves on D-Day, the other was at Anzio. Because of work I was unable to see the man who witnessed Pearl Harbor. However I will be meeting the two veterans later today. I will also be speaking with a Dutch woman who chose to stay in the Netherlands instead of escaping when the Nazis invaded. I will be hearing a lot of interesting stories and when I get the chance I will try to start a thread on what was shared with me today.

    Cheers,
    Dave
     
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  13. KJ Jr

    KJ Jr Well-Known Member

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    Good to hear from you Dave.
     
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  14. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    Some corrections. The woman who chose to stay in Europe when the Nazis invaded is actually Danish. The man who I said was at Anzio served on the Western front during the war. He had a big binder of things that were related to his service and there was a document that listed where he served and it said "Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe." I was told by my dad before I met him that he had served at Anzio. But I spoke with him his name is Cy and he is a really great man and shared a number stories that he could remember. I'll share with y'all about it later today. I'm going to be meeting the ma'am from Denmark and the man who was a medic that landed at Omaha on D-Day in one of the first few waves later today and I will share that with you all as well!

    Cheers!,
    Dave
     
  15. Half Track

    Half Track Well-Known Member

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    I wish you the very best, sounds like a wonderful opportunity!
     
  16. gtblackwell

    gtblackwell Member Emeritus

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    Dave, What a pleasure to see your name and glad you are getting on with school. It indeed takes lots of time. I was very fortunate to find jobs with flexible schedules so I could work around classes but it is not easy and always depends on a little luck.

    As to your paper I grew up in Selma, Alabama, a town infamous for civil rights but not anti-semetic . I spent a lot of time in a Synagogue as well as the Episcopal Church and had lots of Jewish friends, Growing up in the immediate post war period the war was frequently discussed and the parents of my Jewish friends discussed the numerous Arab -Israeli conflicts. It was the opinion of a very intelligent rabbi that the extremist groups in Israel were often survivors of the camps and trying to establish a homeland in a do or die situation. Their tactics were brutal as had been their lives. Many in Israel opposed such but they felt they had to fight together to survive. Just as today when there is a difference among the citizens of Israel about the settlements in the West bank.. The Palestinians felt their land was being taken from them and the Israeli's settlers felt they had no where else to live after the Holocaust. A situation without an answer or at least one terribly hard to find.. To me the Ingrun and others were brutal but not nearly to the extent of the Nazis treatment of the Jews which they experienced and the immediate invasion of Israel with threats to exterminate then also plays a part in everyone's behavior. It is a most complex thing to study and even harder to understand, certainly hard just to read about. Most Jewish people and Palestinians are generically the same, semetic people. . It is one of our worlds saddest things that they cannot come together in some way. North and South Korea are remotely similar to me though religion is not much of a factor in the Koreas. .

    To study the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the extremes of their behaviors in each country one would have to look back several thousands of years and still might not understand it.. You are to be congratulated for tackling this issue..

    Always good to see you here anhd good luck in the Fall.

    Gaines

    Oh, I am having a bit of eye problems and may have lots of typos here, can see the keys but hard to see the words I wrote :)
     
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  17. wm.

    wm. Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, but it's not quite correct. Most of those people never saw the Holocaust or even the war if I'm not mistaken. They emigrated there before the war. They were mostly members of the pre-war Betar Movement (including Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin).
    Betar was right wing from the beginning, later even more right wing (but they disliked capitalism). Many of them were trained by the Polish Army (and by the Italians) and their training actually included terrorism.

    Although there were up to 50,000 of those Betarists in Poland, most of them didn't survive. Because they were right wing, they were murdered both by the Nazis, and by the Soviets without mercy.

    On of the first real terrorists was Szalom Tabacznik, a Polish Jew who in 1938 with his colleagues attacked an Arab bus full of civilians with a hand-grenade - in a very clumsy way so nobody died, but the British sentenced him to death nonetheless.
     
  18. gtblackwell

    gtblackwell Member Emeritus

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    Wm, thanks for the information. I was curious at the time if many survivors had gotten to Israel by that time. I was 115-6 at the time and the rabbi's stories were wonderful and at least plausible. I have some reading to do,

    Gaines
     
  19. Otto

    Otto Spambot Nemesis Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    You are quite lucky to see and hear these man. Take good notes, we can add their profiles over at WW2.org and keep make strong entries for posterity.
     
  20. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Welcome back to the forums, good to hear from you. Stay in touch a little more often if possible, and keep those grades up!

    Yeah, and what Otto said!
     

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