Originally Posted by
zonatandem
On the last day of World War One my uncle died when his artillery piece blew up firing at the Germans in Flanders fields.
BTW he was n the Belgian Army and served from 1914 til his death in the front lines.
Sadly his luck ran out at the last hour of the war.
His brother (my dad) served in the Canadian Army from 1915-18 and also fought in Flanders and France in WW I. Wounded 3 times and buried alive once.
They dug him up but his buddy next to him died in the trench collapse.
I worked with the underground (as a kid) in WW II in Belgium. Served with the US Air Force in the Korean debacle.
With all due respect to the Marine Corps, we all served.
No one would dispute that, I think.
I've been fascinated by the mass murder they call the Ypres salient, and specifically the Battle of Passchendaele. I've seen the dramatization and the documentary versions. Literal Hell on earth. I had nine years service in the Mean Green Machine, and it wasn't one tenth the sacrifice it was to spend one night in a muddy trench where you didn't have to worry about the enemy. If you slipped off the duckwalk you drowned at the bottom of the trench.