Hello all : My name is Ray Doubleday aka punchcardRay on this forum. I'm substantially over 60 and have had a focused interested in WWII for the last two years. My dad was in WWII as an infantryman in the First Division (Big Red 1). He was a part of the landing party on D Day, and was captured a couple of days later. He spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in western Germany. He came out with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. There were no war stories growing up and in retrospect he probably dealt with the PTSD of war and prison pretty well all things considered. About three years ago my dad contracted lung cancer and I went to take care of him in his home in Connecticut, my mother having passed away much earlier. In the course of taking care of him I had time to chat with him every day. Eventually some stories of his landing and his time in prison came out. Mostly the funny ones. After he died in May of 2013 I thought that a D Day tour would be a good way to honor his life. We decided not to go in 2014 and skip the 70th anniversary festivities and go this year. In preparation for the trip I began to read about D Day and WWII. First a three volume historical novel series by Jeff Shaara, then Stephen Ambrose , then a biography of Ike. Now I am pretty hooked on the Battles in Europe. We did the WWII tour in fine style,went to London and saw the Churchill Map Room and then the Imperial War Museum, traveled to Portsmouth were we went through the D Day museum, and on the next day we took a Troop Transport ( Ferry Boat) to Normandy landing In Caen. We spent three Days in Bayeux where we took a full day's tour of the American Beaches. We then 'Liberated' Paris prior to returning home. My wife & I live in coastal Maine, Thomaston to be exact. Currently I am still reading avidly about the battles and am about to start the second volume of the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson. The Battles are interesting of course but the personalities of the major players is as interesting to me as well. I suspect that I will eventually ask for help in tracking down some specifics of my fathers unit, commanding officers and things like that. But for now I am just enjoying the reading. I spent 20 years working as an acoustic (Sonar) engineer for the US Navy developing equipment and tactics. I did a lot of reading about the US Navy in WWII (Samuel Morrison) and others. I may be able help someone here. My wife's father was a Tin Can sailor (signalman) and ran the supply routes in the North Atlantic on a destroyer ( USS Ingram). After D Day he was transferred to the Pacific theater where he served out the remainder of the war. The USS Ingram can claim at least one U Boat. Punchcard Ray doesn't relate to anything in the war, being a geek of longstanding I was that guy in college walking down the hall to the computing center with a box of punch cards that represented my program, with the Job control language cards in the front and the data cards in the back of the box. The practice continued for my entire professional life as I remained a programmer for all of it. Although I haven't had to use punch-cards in quite a while. I am looking forward to being a part of this group. Regards Ray
Welcome to the forum punchardRay ! I have run out of salutes for the day unfortunately but that was a really good intro! Welcome!
Welcome to the Forum, Ray. That was a very good introduction. Although I have not yet reached the ol' Six-Oh, I am old enough to remember the punchcards. When I was in HS, we had a terminal which used a thin roll of paper (punch tape). My, how far we have come...
Welcome, Ray. I'm over the big 6-0 and nearing the big 7-0. I also remember using punchcards in one of my "learning experiences". We look forward to anything you care to share about your father. Do you have any pictures you can show us?
