13th airborne division

last time i was at my parents place i saw this book sitting on the table. it looked kind of cool, and very old. i asked my dad what it was and it turns out its a book from when my grampa was in the army! i took some time and paged through it.

my moms dad was in the army during the second world war. he passed away about five years ago, and now im really regretting the fact that i never asked him more about it. the book that i was looking through had pictures of all the different groups that were in the army at that time, and tucked into the book were my grampas original papers from his service! he was forced into the army during the draft and spent time on the european front as a member of a glider team. as my brother described it, a glider team were people who would go up in wooden planes being pulled by other planes. when they got to their destination they would be cut off and glide to the ground, a very dangerous thing considering the glider didnt have any engine or much by way of controls. when on the ground they would have to defend themselves and try to achieve their mission. the survival rate for this kind of work was pretty low, so grampa must have been very good at it. in his papers it says that he had 4 months of training, then was a rifleman for 14 months. they must have figured that he had worked hard enough as a glider, because the last 4 months of his service were spent as a clerk.

learning more about his time in the military makes me even prouder to be his grandson.

(more pics)