The Off Topic Topic

[Valmy]

Did that one armed guy go on to play for the St Louis Browns?

My Maternal Grandfather owned a farm so he was considered essential until 1944 when manpower shortages made him draft eligible.  This was a little town in Oklahoma so everybody knew when he was going in for his physical.  He was notorious for getting horrible man-flus in the fall and his physical was in October so he showed up looking like hell and they classified him as 4F for that.  The humiliation was pretty bad, everybody in the county knew what had happened.

My Paternal Grandfather always wanted to be in the Army so in the 30s he did ROTC and the whole thing.  He joined a few years before the war broke out and they noted he was a business major at NC State so they stuck him on the Munitions Board during the re-armament and he ended up being stuck there the whole war.  Kind of a bummer for a kid who dreamed of being a heroic army officer.

[Malthus]

Did that one armed guy go on to play for the St Louis Browns?

My Maternal Grandfather owned a farm so he was considered essential until 1944 when manpower shortages made him draft eligible.  This was a little town in Oklahoma so everybody knew when he was going in for his physical.  He was notorious for getting horrible man-flus in the fall and his physical was in October so he showed up looking like hell and they classified him as 4F for that.  The humiliation was pretty bad, everybody in the county knew what had happened.

My Paternal Grandfather always wanted to be in the Army so in the 30s he did ROTC and the whole thing.  He joined a few years before the war broke out and they noted he was a business major at NC State so they stuck him on the Munitions Board during the re-armament and he ended up being stuck there the whole war.  Kind of a bummer for a kid who dreamed of being a heroic army officer.

My paternal grandfather wanted to join up in the Canadian army, but as it turns out his rather obscure occupation - he was a world expert on the Spruce Budworm, an insect that attacks spruce trees - got him booted out; he spent the entire war managing Canada's strategic stock of spruce. His stories were mostly of desperate expedients used to keep his car running despite a lack of rubber for tyres (his job required him to travel thousands of miles on logging roads, in all weathers). 

[Barrister]

I had one grandfather who joined the RCAF as a wireless operator and flew all over europe, the middle east, and even to India.

My other grandfather was stationed in Ontario and started up a second family that nobody knew about till later.

[Admiral Yi]

Would anyone happen to know the largest units formed by the RCAF in WWII?  I've never heard mention of *any* RCAF units in anything I've read.

[Malthus]

Would anyone happen to know the largest units formed by the RCAF in WWII?  I've never heard mention of *any* RCAF units in anything I've read.

The outbreak of the Second World War saw the RCAF fielding eight of its eleven permanent operational squadrons, but by October 1939 15 squadrons were available (12 for homeland defence, three for overseas service). Twenty types of aircraft were in service at this point, over half being for training or transport, and the RCAF started the war with only 29 front-line fighter and bomber aircraft.[26] The RCAF reached peak strength of 215,000 (all ranks) in January 1944.[27] By the end of the war, the RCAF would be the fourth largest allied air force.[28] Approximately 13,000 RCAF personnel were killed while on operations, or died as prisoners of war.[29] Another 4000 died during training or from other causes.[29]

Here's a list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Royal_Canadian_Air_Force#Overseas_operations

[Valmy]

My other grandfather was stationed in Ontario and started up a second family that nobody knew about till later.

Well he certainly had more fun than most people did during WWII.

How did that come to light?  Must have been awkward.

[Admiral Yi]

Danke Malthus.

[Barrister]

My other grandfather was stationed in Ontario and started up a second family that nobody knew about till later.

Well he certainly had more fun than most people did during WWII.

How did that come to light?  Must have been awkward.

It wasn't talked about a lot (also he died shortly before I was born), but was mentioned.  My grandmother died of a brain tumour when my dad was just a kid (so late 50s or so).  At some point when the kids were grown up (not that he did a good job at it) I gather he went back to Ontario and met up again with that woman.  So apparently  do have a half-uncle somewhere out there that supposedly looks like my dad, but no one has shown much interest in tracking him down.

[Valmy]

Wait so he did this before or after his wife died?  Any particular reason he did not just marry her?

[Barrister]

Wait so he did this before or after his wife died?  Any particular reason he did not just marry her?

The second family was while my grandmother was alive, but still back in Winnipeg together with some of the older kids (my dad wasn't born yet though).

[sbr]

I don't know anything about my mom's dad.

My dad's dad was a firefighter in DC, I heard he founded or was one of the first members of the first rescue squad in DC.  He was perfectly capable physically but for some reason every time he signed up for the draft board (or whatever it was) he was rejected.  No one knows why, they just assume he had a Guardian Angel on the board somewhere who kept him out.

[Iormlund]

My paternal grandfather wanted nothing to do with war. He very clearly loathed everything about it, which is not really a surprise having lived through the Civil War.

Fortunately for him he was an educated man with skills that could be put to good use by the military effort (he was an art painter). So he evaded the front lines. He did come under fire at least once, when Republican aviators strafed the farm where his group was stationed, killing many who hid in the haystacks.

[The Larch]

My maternal grandfather was "drafted" (with air quotes, as it was just an officer driving a truck and picking the older looking kids in each village in rural Zamora) when he was 16 because he was very tall, it wasn't until he reached the provincial recruitment center that they realized he was underage and sent back home.

My maternal grandmother's brother was about to finish his degree on Pharmacy when the war broke out. His whole promotion was destined to field hospitals and he ended up driving an ambulance through the battlefields during the war. Before the war his favourite dish was lamb brains (disgusting, I know), not anymore after the war was over.

[Josquius]

Weird question...but do women ever actually wear stockings?
Listening to a woman at work today talk about what was acceptable clothing she mentioned stockings for women, which made me snigger as in my mind they are purely a sex item.
Its not something I've ever really looked into or had the opportunity to notice but most girls I know of always wear tights.

How old are those girls?

Stockings are pretty common for a woman to wear if she is dressing above the level of casual.  In the context of a professional suit, unless a woman is wearing pants she is probably wearing stockings.

But why? I don't quite understand it. Tights look exactly the same on a fully dressed person but they're less faff. At least that's the reason "Nobody wears them anymore" (As I've been told anyway).

[Jacob]

But why? I don't quite understand it. Tights look exactly the same on a fully dressed person but they're less faff. At least that's the reason "Nobody wears them anymore" (As I've been told anyway).

Who's been telling you that, out of curiosity?