Comments by "vk2ig" (@vk2ig) on "Last WW2 Veterans - Only Living Survivors of Famous Units & Actions" video.

  1. And might've felt a little bit self-conscious or even embarrassed when someone said "Thank you for your service"?
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  2. I met a WW1 signals veteran at the Albert Park depot (Melbourne) during an Anzac Day get-together in the early 80s. I suspect he was the only WW1 veteran I ever got to meet.
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  3. Apart from the face-to-face meetings with many WW2 vets during my younger years (as Dr. Felton said, they were everywhere at that time), I met many on-the-air during my early days on amateur radio. Many of them were elderly gentlemen in the USA who would answer my CQ calls on morse code during my evenings ... and typically explain that they woke up in the night, couldn't sleep, didn't want to wake the wife, so they went to the radio "shack", plugged in the headphones, and tuned around to see who was about. These people had some fascinating stories. One was in the Marines and his LST spent a few days tied up alongside in my home city, but they weren't allowed to disembark before they were sent north to Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea ... and he never got to visit my city again. Another had built radio installations for airfields across the Pacific, and he told how they built one in record time but it never got used because the war moved on as the Allies captured island after island ... I still remember that conversation: I had my map spread out over the table and we were chatting back and forth across the Pacific via morse code. Those guys aren't there anymore, and it's quite noticeable in the discussions one has on-the-air these days. It's not better, and it's not worse - it's just different. I'm glad I got to meet those men, even if it was "virtually".
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