My Grandad thinks he's not a Hero.

I've always been interested in history, especially WWII.
I've always known I had relatives who fought in that war, and when I got older, I always intended to ask them about thier experiences. But I never did. My life is full of "almosts".
John Merriman Fuller, my grandad, is a complicated fellow. He loves us, and we him, but he's a reserved sort. Not prone to openess or emotional conectivity. He's not patently against such things,he just isn't those things. He's friendly, tolerant, and very reliable. A wierd blend of humility AND pride. But he and I are very different and when I reached my teens, we just had little to do with each other.(Gee, thats uncommon, huh!)

A while back, I found this forum. WOW! What a treat! I read through many threads including those of Mr. Jack, a.k.a. southpacificvet, and Mr. Sapper, the Brittish engineer. Both very moving accounts. I hold these men in the highest regard. I felt ashamed. What kept me from calling grandaddyJohn?
Well, I finally did. Here's how it went.
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's David."
"O! How are you?" He always acts like he's surpised to hear from me.
A few pleasantries, then a pause. He likes to get to the point.
"I know your busy," he owns and works at his own architectural firm. "but can I call you tonight. I'd like to know what you did in 'the war'."
"Sure, but I'm afraid I'll disappoint you."
"Maybe not." I said.
So I arranged to call him later that night.
I called him again two nights later. (What am I scared of?)
It was'nt pulling teeth, more like trying to stop a flood.

He transfered from Cornell to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, in '42 at the age of sixteen. I knew he was smart, but damn, Cornell? And proud. He wanted to stay in the south. Apparently, winters are killer up north.
Early into the second quarter, Army recruiters came down to Auburn. They said, "If you sign up for the reserves now, you'll be able to complete your education before you get drafted!" He wasn't old enough to register for the draft yet, but he signed up anyway. A week after boot camp, they were called to active duty.
He landed in Normandy on D+20 with the Advanced Section Communications Zone HDQ, G4 Security. Please, someone, help me find out more on that. I tried to take notes but he was too fast!
This is the most he's said to me in years, I din't want to stop him now!
Thier job was to build and run three fuel pipelines, 100 octane for planes and 80 octane for trucks and tanks, to the Front. He drafted the maps and helped lay out the course. The breakout at St. Lo was too fast. They couldn't keep up.
General Plank, thier C.O., ordered against his staffs objections to halt production on two of the pipelines.
When Patton's advance was stalled at Metz, the pipeline was 5 miles back. A laudable acomplishment. But they couldn't bypass the last pump station, a good 15 or 20 miles back, because they were still filling other trucks there.
If only there was another pipeline!

Later that winter, about Christmas time, his unit recieved orders. They were to be sent up as replacemants to stop the German Second Ardennes offensive. They tied one on that night. He said he never got that drunk before. The next day he felt terrible. He could hardly sit at his drafting table in the barn they were using. His head and his stomach were killing him! He made his way to an aid station. They checked him out, gave him some asperin, and told him to come back at noon if he didn't feel any better.
He woke up three days later, with tubes stuck in his arms and stomach, at a field hospital. Ruptured appendix. The doctor told him, "Ten minutes later, and you would've died." He was evacuate to England.

In April, he returned to his unit. A cuople of weeks later, President Roosevelt died, with V.E. day and V.J. day soon to follow.
"I'm not a war hero." he told me.

Like I said, he's not much for frothy emotional sentiment. I might should have, but I din't tell him what I acctually thought.
I said, "Maybe you wern't a frontline soldier, but you were there, you did your part."
What I tought was, 'Sure you were. You volunteered, at 17 years old, not knowing where they would put you. You did the job assigned to you. Without the efforts of units like yours, what would our soldiers have fought with? Sticks and rocks? And you didn't chicken out of the "Battle of the Bulge", evidently God had other plans. You took part in the greatest humanitarian effort in history. You should not be ashamed. I'm Proud of You!'

Maybe he's got that certain Humility that so many vets have. "Why them and not me?"

 

Your grandftaher is a hero.... He served his country and served it well and sacrificed his comforts of home to make the world a better place... Not every hero is on the fron lines or behind the rifle

 

He does have quite the interesting story indeed! You are very smart to be so proud of him, sure he wasnt on the Front riding a Tank; but he was one of the ones that gave them the ability to Drive it!

That is quite a shame to hear that his appendix had busted though; Tough man.

He is a War Hero, what could the Armour out of Saint-Lo' Without the fuel to run them?

 

Real heroes always say that.

 

The defintion of a hero is very difficult. Usually heroes are considered as such by others and will not consider themselves as such . They would often react like your dad and say other are heroes because they did this and that and wil then describe something similar to what he in fact did too. You also mentionned the feeling of guilt and the belief that the real heroes died on the field. This humility is exactly what makes a hero. There is no glory in being a war hero, knowing your friends did not return, but the fact that you served your country ,did your best and made it back are the best criteria if you ask me. There is no need to take risks to get yourself a name, I doubt most men got up one morning and said "well time to do something to be a hero". Humility and modesty are in fact a shield to protect a man from the horrible memories he experienced. This humanity is precisely what deserves to be praised. Your dad is a hero!

 

Fantastic story, glad you finally asked him and found out. I'm not surprised he doesn't consider himself a hero, as has been said already he seems to have the 'I did what I had to do' attitude of a lot of veterans. Still, it's great that you have learned his story and he knows how you feel. I agree with Slip, try to get it on tape, audio, video, anything so that you can pass it on to your kids and they to theirs. They will thank you for it!

 

serving the country is not being a hero....its doing the right thing what makes you a hero. One of my grandfathers fought agaisnt the imperialist fascists in italy and he was considered a traitor and a communist, they tried to lynch him the first time his village was bombed. After war he was a hero he recieved a medal and a diplomma signed by Alexander.
On the other hand my other father was a Tanker and fought in russian front, it
doesnt make me proud to think that he roasted many t-34 tankers with his tiger. He was proud showing his iron cross......
I think the real heroes were those that wanted peace before ww1 were everyone was thinking of a swift victory or people like sophie scoll that died for their ideals.

 

Having grown up in a land full of heros I've found this quite common. Just about everyone was stoic, brave and served without a murmur. After the war it became just something they did, and I think out of respect for the friends and family they lost they wouldn't ever consider themselves as a hero.

 

Really?? what was his name and what schwere Panzer Abteilung was he in? Waffen SS or Wehrmacht? I think some would be very interested in looking him up and reading more.

 

waffen ss thats why i dont want to talk about it, he was not a hero.
he told to me he was not nazi and joined because he received better treatment than in the army, but i dont believe him. I dont even believe he ever regretted his decisions...

 

Indeed you can talk about him. I personally dont agree with SS politics, but I respect ANY warrior willing to die for thier beliefs. Besides, its history we're after, if thats what he was then so be it.

 

die for beliefs??? even if those beliefs settle on the extermination of all mankind but a small group of people who believe themselves superior on the grounds of pathetic pseudoscientific argunments???. Those are not beliefs, that is pure evil and fanatism

 

These days it's nice to find people who believe in anything.

But I agree that blind allegiance has faults.

 

The world does not need exponents of an ideology that is primitive and goes against tolerance and human rights ( which we need to consider specially nowadays ) like fascists and nazis.
Stalinists also, so people dont say my left ideologies blind my judgement.

 

A little von Clausewitz...

Boldness, directed by an overruling intelligence, is the stamp of the hero: this
boldness does not consist in venturing directly against the nature of
things, in a downright contempt of the laws of probability, but, if
a choice is once made, in the rigorous adherence to that higher
calculation which genius, the tact of judgment, has gone over with the
speed of lightning. The more boldness lends wings to the mind and the
discernment, so much the farther they will reach in their flight, so
much the more comprehensive will be the view, the more exact the result,
but certainly always only in the sense that with greater objects greater
dangers are connected. The ordinary man, not to speak of the weak
and irresolute, arrives at an exact result so far as such is possible
without ocular demonstration, at most after diligent reflection in his
chamber, at a distance from danger and responsibility. Let danger and
responsibility draw close round him in every direction, then he loses
the power of comprehensive vision, and if he retains this in any measure
by the influence of others, still he will lose his power of DECISION,
because in that point no one can help him.