Wife wants to go to Bastogne.

[BevoJoe]

Ever since she saw the Band of Brothers. One of the men in the interview portion of the film, was from Bonham, TX made the statement "On a cold night I will tell my wife at least I'm not in Bastogne" came to speak at her school when she was a kid and was very interested in the stories he told. Plus, she wants to go in winter. So Christmas 2017, we'll head off to Luxembourg and drive over to the area. First time I went I was 15, 25 years after the battle and the landscape and the woods were still pretty beat up. One of my relatives was a US soldier and wounded near there. Lost three German relatives KIA during the Ardenne Offensive. She wants to see where the 506 E company was positioned, so we'll go up toward the little village of Foy and she can walk the area. On a visit many years later, I noticed that the town has completely rebuilt and nature has healed itself, but some faint scars still remain. Afterward, I'll take her to Germany to meet a man I spoke with many years ago. He fought the Russians near Berlin, but managed to escape encirclement and surrendered to the allies to the west. He told me he was in a detention camp on his birthday, May 4th. He turned 13 that day. Should be an interesting trip and will be a good surprise for her!

 

[aUTfan]

Ever since she saw the Band of Brothers. One of the men in the interview portion of the film, was from Bonham, TX made the statement "On a cold night I will tell my wife at least I'm not in Bastogne" came to speak at her school when she was a kid and was very interested in the stories he told. Plus, she wants to go in winter. So Christmas 2017, we'll head off to Luxembourg and drive over to the area. First time I went I was 15, 25 years after the battle and the landscape and the woods were still pretty beat up. One of my relatives was a US soldier and wounded near there. Lost three German relatives KIA during the Ardenne Offensive. She wants to see where the 506 E company was positioned, so we'll go up toward the little village of Foy and she can walk the area. On a visit many years later, I noticed that the town has completely rebuilt and nature has healed itself, but some faint scars still remain. Afterward, I'll take her to Germany to meet a man I spoke with many years ago. He fought the Russians near Berlin, but managed to escape encirclement and surrendered to the allies to the west. He told me he was in a detention camp on his birthday, May 4th. He turned 13 that day. Should be an interesting trip and will be a good surprise for her!

Thats cool, i didn't really like history when i was younger but I've grown to enjoy it and read about it as I've gotten older. I haven't read much about this part of it yet but visiting places like this after having read about it would be fascinating to me.

 

[BevoJoe]

I was fortunate to have lived in Germany with a family, on a farm and could take a motorcycle, train or ride one of the big draft horses to visit places on a day trip.

 

[WorsterMan]

American history nut. Seen Band of Brothers probably 20 times. Fascinating series and incredible men that fought in that battle. I remember that ex-soldier that uttered that line about not being in Bastogne.

Sounds like a great trip Joe - would love to go myself one day.

 

[Crockett]

My son was an avid watcher of the History Channel. As as second grader, he asked "Dad, on our next family vacation can we go to Stalingrad?" He's still quite the history nut and has won a place in the state classics competition 2 years in a row with knowledge of ancient Roman history and ancient geography. Never took any trips to Europe with him, but he's a great companion on trips to Civil War and Revolutionary war sites. I see other parents' dealing with youngsters saying "I'm bored" and I feel so grateful I never have to hear that.

The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg and the Lexington are worthwhile stops for the WWII history buff.

 

[BevoJoe]

I went to Leningrad 40 years ago and the highlight was the Hemitage, a massive palace now a museum. Very cool!! Lots of memorials dedicated to the war. Stalingrad is high on my bucket list though. Other places I liked were traveling the coast of Normandy, the Colmar pocket area, Verdun, Waterloo, Berlin (it was divided until my last trip to be there for reunification), Arnhem, Nijmegen, southern france, Remagen, Berchtesgaden (my father and I dug up a brick from the Berghof which is displayed at my parents home) Hitler's Tea House, Dachau, Bergen Belsen, and other sites in Europe. Where I lived on the farm in Germany, I would take a horse and ride the Teutoburg forest where Arminius crushed 3 Roman Legions under Varus in 9 AD. Wewelsburg castle was near, but is was closed to the public when I was there. I lived in Egypt for awhile which is the ancient history I like most. I did as much as I could when young, BC (before children and before college) and before the world became too messed up.

 

[WorsterMan]

Not to get too off topic from Joe's post, but since we are talking WWII history. I just returned from a company award trip to Maui 2 weeks ago. 24 year old son was my guest instead of wife as she had been there before and son had not.

One day, we took a puddle jumper over to Oahu - I wanted him to see Pearl Harbor (museums, submarine Bowfin, Arizona Memorial, Ford Island, aviation museum & USS Missouri) and me narrate for him. We spent most of the day there. This was my 3rd visit to PH, but my first time to see the USS Missouri (Iowa Class battleship) anchored just behind the Arizona Memorial.

The Missouri was very impressive. We had a volunteer guide who was very informative about the ship and the details / interesting facts about the Japanese surrender that took place on the deck in Sept. 1945. We stood on the spot where the instrument of surrender was signed and we walked almost the link of the lower deck from stern to bow. We were not able to crawl around inside the 16" guns.

If you have occasion to go to Hawaii, I highly recommend you spend at least a day at Pearl Harbor.

 

[Statalyzer]

"Dad, on our next family vacation can we go to Stalingrad?"

No, but maybe he could go to Volgograd.

The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg and the Lexington are worthwhile stops for the WWII history buff.

Don't forget the USS Texas.

 

[BevoJoe]

Not to get too off topic from Joe's post, but since we are talking WWII history. I just returned from a company award trip to Maui 2 weeks ago. 24 year old son was my guest instead of wife as she had been there before and son had not.

One day, we took a puddle jumper over to Oahu - I wanted him to see Pearl Harbor (museums, submarine Bowfin, Arizona Memorial, Ford Island, aviation museum & USS Missouri) and me narrate for him. We spent most of the day there. This was my 3rd visit to PH, but my first time to see the USS Missouri (Iowa Class battleship) anchored just behind the Arizona Memorial.

The Missouri was very impressive. We had a volunteer guide who was very informative about the ship and the details / interesting facts about the Japanese surrender that took place on the deck in Sept. 1945. We stood on the spot where the instrument of surrender was signed and we walked almost the link of the lower deck from stern to bow. We were not able to crawl around inside the 16" guns.

If you have occasion to go to Hawaii, I highly recommend you spend at least a day at Pearl Harbor.

I'll be back on Maui in October for a couple of weeks R&R. Where did you stay on Maui? If you go again I'll give you a couple of locals spots to check out and a great beach north of Lahaina.

 

[WorsterMan]

I'll be back on Maui in October for a couple of weeks R&R. Where did you stay on Maui? If you go again I'll give you a couple of locals spots to check out and a great beach north of Lahaina.

Lahaina is a wonderful area. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton on the company dime in Kapalua. Tons of great hotels / resorts in Kaanapali just North of Lahaina. Would like to hear about your local favs in the area - send me an IM later so we don't bore the others....

 

[Crockett]

No, but maybe he could go to Volgograd.



Don't forget the USS Texas.

Well, I'm sure it would be a lot easier to get his mom and I to st Petersburg than Volgograd. I honestly like Bevo Joe's destinations.

 

[Statalyzer]

My son was an avid watcher of the History Channel. As as second grader, he asked "Dad, on our next family vacation can we go to Stalingrad?" He's still quite the history nut and has won a place in the state classics competition 2 years in a row with knowledge of ancient Roman history and ancient geography. Never took any trips to Europe with him, but he's a great companion on trips to Civil War and Revolutionary war sites. I see other parents' dealing with youngsters saying "I'm bored" and I feel so grateful I never have to hear that.

The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredricksburg and the Lexington are worthwhile stops for the WWII history buff.

When I was in London about 5 years ago I went to the Imperial War Museum and on board the HMS Belfast. (Funny note: my younger sister didn't realize the naval abbreviation and thought I was saying a word. She asked "Who is Aechimus Belfast?" and I burst out laughing). I went to France on the same trip but didn't visit any battlefields or war sites of any kind. I'd love to go back and visit a bunch of those. Bastogne would be cool, as would Parker's Crossroads (mostly just an intersection of two small roads with a historical marker, but it'd be chilling being at the spot, since my Dad studied a lot about the engagement there). Also would want to tour the Normandy coast, see some of the remnants of the Atlantic Wall.

Hopefully when/if I have kids they'll end up with that sort of appreciation of history. Plenty of great history books out there, but nothing quite like visiting the actual spot. I was at Gettysburg a few years ago and felt like the overabundance of monuments detracted from the aura a bit, but it was interesting being at the "high-water mark" and feeling (in an admittedly overly-melodramatic sense) that I was standing right at the spot where a nation once died.

Too bad there aren't more accurate war movies out there, but Crockett I really recommend Patton if your son hasn't seen that one. Everything I've read or heard from anyone who served under Patton is that movie had his personality and mannerisms and "presence" down pat. Also just curious if he's also the type who likes intellectual strategy games (chess/go or other type of stuff like that) or even sillier stuff with a battle theme like Risk and Stratego; there are actually a lot of really good historical strategy games out there that have really helped pique my interest in and knowledge of various wars or historical time periods.

 

[Crockett]

Statalyzer, I honestly thought my son was was too young for war movies at 5 , but as I was flipping Channels the movie Midway was on. He screamed out "it's the Lexington. Go Back. (we had visited it in Corpus). I can watch that movie a million times, so we watched it together. (Curiously enough my son was right. It was the Lexington, which was painted up and played role of all the Japanese and American carriers in the movie).
From there I bought copies of old, pretty much bloodless, war movies I liked when I was watching them as a kid (Sink the Bismark, The 300 Spartans (1964 version) and he watched them gleefully. As as he got older Gettysburg, Gods Generals, Battle of Britain, The Longest Day and Patton. He liked them a lot, especially Gods & Generals. His mother bought him The Green Berets and in subsequent discussions he was sad to learn that despite John Wayne's efforts we hadn't really won in Vietnam. He read books like Killer Angels and Rifles for Waite in third grade. I was hoping to get him into books like War and Remembrance and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, but by the time he was old enough he had no patience for writers of my parents generation. He reads a lot, but mostly fantasy like the Game of Thrones series.

He liked Chess, Stratego and Risk as a youngster, but as a high schooler, he mostly does internet games. But he's still up for historical visits. We had a great time in Williamsburg, Yorktown, Boston, Lexington, Concord, San Antonio, Fredricksburg (TX), Vickburg and even the Texas Civil War Museum with him but sadly enough we've never been able to fit a visit to Gettysburg in.

 

[Crockett]

By the way, BevoJoe, I envy your travel arrangements and admire how you and your wife built a trip plan around mutual interests/expertise.

 

[WorsterMan]

I visited Gettysburg for the first time about 15 years ago. Read several books leading up to it to be sure I was fully plugged in. Spent the whole day there with my Dad doing our own in order walk-thru of the battle and cemetery.

Very moving humbling and moving experience for us... If you are an American history nut, you must get to Gettysburg one day.