This photo of my father & motorcycle was taken somewhere in Italy.

Maybe Anzio area? The scan doesn't show how enormous the pile of

rumble is. In the actual photo, it's HUGE.

Don't know anything about WWII motorcycles. There's a star in a circle on it - does that mean anything?

Yes, I already posted this in another forum but maybe its worthwhile repeating for some that missed it.

Kinda long and maybe boring but quite factual.

Seems liske we were always "scrounging" (or looting) such drinkables as wine, cognac, calvados, anasette, beer when lucky, along with other such things. How about it Sgt. Leo? Remember? Not to mention civilian food when possible, but thats another thing. Of course at ETO wars end our Military shipped over grain for German breweries to make beer for G.I. consumption which was great. If I remember correctly our company was issued a keg per night for after hour consumption by our company in a

home made "beer garden". Rough made but adequate.Also wine was available on the local

market along with some schnaps. Cigarettes were the usual trade commodity for this. Along with this our D.P. camps (Displaced Personel, like the Polish and Checs and others) made a variety of what we called "Garbage Schnaps" probably made from the left over G.I. mess hall garbage.

Guaranteed not to be over 3 days old in aging. However roumer had it by adding 2 spoons of honey to it and aging it for 2 more days it was palatable. Who knows. It seemed drinkable though. Mixed with Cocoa Cola who could tell.

Some German beer was also available at Gasthauses, (bars) when open. Again, cigarettes were the coin of the realm in preference to Allied Curency. (Marks). Perhaps Sgt. Leo can go into Allied Curency as I am a bit vague on its ins and outs and hows and whys. One Mark was about the equivilent of .10 cents. With cigarettes selling in the PX rations for .50 cents a carton and could be sold on the ecomomy for up to the equivelent of $200.00 a carton soon it was realized too much money was being sent home by some. Then shortly it came to pass one could only send home via money order just what one drew over the pay table. To counteract this, cigarettes became "rationed to troops" at 2 cartons per week. However, again, some "wise guys" traded for diamonds and the likes and returned home with them. Oh to know what could have been done but being young and foolish I didnt know. Stupidly I traded a carton of cigarettes for a motorcycle and spent my free time hunting and just enjoying life ETC till my return home. Well, I guess I have bored you enough for now. With the war in ETO over it was just wait till my return home and being young and single it didnt bother me too much. My turn to return came in a bit. Sgt. Leo, please add to or critique this post. Roque, dont know how it was in Italy during this period so bear with me friend and make comments

Hi Folks,

Tony and I went down to South Carolina to visit with our other WWII buddy, Walter Miller, and also to play some golf. Walt had suffered a heart attack recently, but is recovering nicely and is getting around OK. While at his house and going through his file of the 36th he came across a poem he had written while on the beachhead. I thought it was great and something to be put out there. So,I brought it home to scan and send to you folks.

"STAY RUGGED"

Carl

Anzio

Golden sands and water blue

Verdure marshes bright with dew

Sheep and shepherd in the dell

Stiffened cattle felled by shell

Distance mountain white with snow

This I saw at Anzio

Ruins old and modern homes

Sulfur springs and catacombs

Silver cows with silver tails

Diving planes with vapor trails

Nazi captives in a row

This I saw at Anzio

Air armadas massed in flight

Tracers winging through the night

Crosses white in fields of green

Screeching shells from guns unseen

Flaming ships with sky aglow

This I saw at Anzio

Towns engulfed in smoky haze

Cruisers with their guns ablaze

Burned out tanks with blackened hull

Cannon roar without a lull

Men who fought and killed their foe

This I saw at Anzio

WJM

10 April 1944

Anzio Beachhead

D-Day Okinawa

April 1, 1945

U.S. troops land on Okinawa

On this day in 1945, after suffering the loss of 116 planes and damage to three aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. combat troops of the 10th Army, under the command of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner Jr., land on the southwest coast of the Japanese island of Okinawa, 350 miles south of Kyushu, the southern main island of Japan.

Determined to seize Okinawa as a base of operations for the army ground and air forces for a later assault on mainland Japan, more than 1,300 ships converged on the island, finally putting ashore 50,000 combat troops on April 1. The Americans quickly seized two airfields and advanced inland to cut the island's waist. They battled nearly 120,000 Japanese army, militia, and labor troops under the command of Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima.

The Japanese surprised the American forces with a change in strategy, drawing them into the mainland rather than confronting them at the water's edge. While Americans landed without loss of men, they would suffer more than 50,000 casualties, including more than 12,000 deaths, as the Japanese staged a desperate defense of the island, a defense that included waves of kamikaze ("divine wind") air attacks. Eventually, these suicide raids proved counterproductive, as the Japanese finally ran out of planes and resolve, with some 4,000 finally surrendering. Japanese casualties numbered some 117,000.

Lieutenant Buckner, son of a Civil War general, was among the casualties, killed by enemy artillery fire just three days before the Japanese surrender. Japanese General Ushijima committed ritual suicide upon defeat of his forces.

This has been verified, so I proudly post it here for you to read:

Why Return to the Air Force Academy after Winter Break?

So after our sunburns have faded and the memories of our winter break have been reduced to pictures we've pinned on our desk boards, and once again we've exchanged T-shirts and swimsuits for flight suits and camouflage, there still remains the question that every cadet at U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has asked themselves at some point: Why did we come back?

Why, after spending two weeks with our family would we return to one of the most demanding lifestyles in the country? After listening to our 'friends' who are home from State or Ivy League schools chock full of wisdom about how our war in Iraq is unjust and unworldly, why would we return? And after watching the news and reading the papers which only seem to condemn the military's every mistake and shadow every victory, why would we continue to think it is worth the sacrifice of a normal college life?

Is it because the institution to which we belong is tuition- free?

Anyone who claims this has forgotten that we will, by the time we graduate, repay the US taxpayer many times over in blood, sweat, and tears. Is it because the schooling we are receiving is one of the best undergraduate educations in the country? While the quality of the education is second to none, anyone who provides this as a main reason has lost sight of the awesome responsibility that awaits those who are tough enough to graduate and become commissioned officers in the U.S. Air Force.

I come back to the Academy because I want to have the training necessary so that one day I'll have the incredible responsibility of leading the sons and daughters of America in combat. These men and women will never ask about my Academy grade point average, their only concern will be that I have the ability to lead them expertly; I will be humbled to earn their respect.

I come back to the Academy because I want to be the commander who saves lives by negotiating with Arab leaders... in their own language.

I come back to the Academy because, if called upon, I want to be the pilot who flies half way around the world with three mid-air refueling to send a bomb from 30,000 feet into a basement housing the enemy... through a ventilation shaft two feet wide. Becoming an officer in today's modern Air Force is so much more than just command; it is being a diplomat, a strategist, a communicator, a moral compass, but always a warrior first.

I come back to the Air Force Academy because, right now, the United States is fighting a global war that is an 'away game' in Iraq - taking the fight to the terrorists.

Whether or not we think the terrorists were in Iraq before our invasion, they are unquestionably there now. And if there is any doubt as to whether this is a global war, just ask the people in Amman, in London, in Madrid, in Casablanca, in Riyadh, and in Bali.

This war must remain an away game because we have seen what happens when it becomes a home game. I come back to the Academy because I want to be a part of that fight.

I come back to the Academy because I don't want my vacationing family to board a bus in Paris that gets blown away by someone who thinks that it would be a good idea to convert the Western world to Islam.

I come back to the Academy because I don't want the woman I love to be the one who dials her last frantic cell phone call while huddled in the back of an airliner with a hundred other people seconds away from slamming into the Capitol building.

I come back to the Academy because during my freshman year of high school I sat in a geometry class and watched nineteen terrorists change the course of history live on television. For the first time, every class currently at a U.S. Service Academy made the decision to join after the 2001 terror attacks.

Some have said that the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan only created more terrorists. I say that the attacks of September 11th, 2001 created an untold more number of American soldiers. I go to school with 4,000 of them. And that's worth more than missing a few frat parties.

Joseph R. Tomczak, Cadet-Fourth Class, U. S. Air Force Academy"

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/record.xpd...109-s20060217-8

(U.S. Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) had Cadet Tomczak's essay read into the Congressional Record, and at a meeting of the Air Force Academy Board of Visitors he presented Cadet Tomczak with a framed copy of the essay.)