November 8, 2024 • 41 mins
Dan invited listeners to call in and honor the Veterans in their lives.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice size Boston's news radio before your sports fans
out there. The Celtics eked out and overtime went over
the Brooklyn Nets tonight at the Fleet at the Center,
I was going to say the Police Center had at
the Garden, the TD Bank North Garden, whatever the hell
they call it these days anyway, So what are we
(00:22):
talking about? What have we talked about this week? Well,
we've talked about a lot of different subjects, as we
do every week. Monday Night, we talked about overachieving at work,
It's not good for life, balance, talk with about Alzheimer's awareness.
We talked about the e MK, the Edward M. Kennedy
Institute for the Senate over at Columbia Point, talked about
(00:45):
National Family Caregiver Month this month with Bob Coughlin. And then,
of course on Monday it was election Eve, we talked
about the Massachusetts ballot questions and then we asked people,
invited them to engage in some predictions, and we're going
to have a winner probably by Monday night. It looks
to me as if the two states that are still
(01:07):
in question, Nevada and Arizona, are trending towards Donald Trump.
So I think he's going to get up around three
hundred and twelve in my opinion, but we will wait
until there's a final agreed upon judgment in terms of
numbers before we tell which of you who were making
predictions last Friday night actually or in Monday night one.
(01:30):
So we'd hope to have a winner, but I think
I know who it's going to be. We'll leave it. So.
Of course, on Tuesday night we had election coverage, a
really great newsroom coverage, and during that program I had
an opportunity to do eight interviews with During the eight
o'clock I with Jim Brett, the president of the New
England Council, with Massachuset State represented David Lynsky of Natick
(01:53):
and Wayland about the efforts by Democratic Party nationally to
do better in in getting control of state legislators, because
state legislatures are the ones that actually draw the congressional
lines in the various states. Talked with nine o'clock Apple
with former Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Mike Capawano, talked with Massachusetts
(02:16):
Republican chair Amy CARNIVALI at ten o'clock talked with Congressman
Seth Moulton, Democrat from Massachusetts, and also with New Hampshire
Governor Chris Sanunu, who was celebrating his fiftieth birthday. At
eleven o'clock, talked with former Massachuset Lieutenant Governor Tom O'Neil,
the son of the great former House Speaker Tip O'Neil,
and also talked with Emerson College pollster Spencer Kimball. Wednesday night,
(02:40):
we talked about a couple of events for veterans, Bill
Pennington's Run for the Troops and Bill Moore's Project New Hope.
We also talked with a professor from NYU, Marian Nessel,
about is there a healthy soda? And then talk with
doctor Kenton Kaufman of the Mayo Clinic out in Minnesota
about how the balance is so important to older people,
(03:03):
those of us on the wrong side of fifties, so
that we don't fall. And we then had two hours
of election night reaction the night after. At that point
we knew we have been told early in the week
oh this election. We might not know for three days,
or we might not know until the weekend. Well, we
knew sometime really early Wednesday morning. On Thursday, we talked
(03:27):
with Chris Price at the Boston Globe about the struggling patriots.
We talked with Mark Erickson of New Hampshire Special Olympics
about a series of bowling tournaments up there this weekend.
Talk with doctor Laura Gabayan about people getting past the election,
and talked with Hayden Frank the National Weather Service about
the severe drought we're dealing with here in Massachusetts. Talked
(03:48):
about the Karen Reid a State Supreme Court argument which
took place on Wednesday with Attorney Phil Tracy of Boston,
and we talked about last night for two hours about
Joe Biden's invitation to President Elect Trump to visit at
the White House in the not too distant future. And
tonight we talked about staying away, topics to avoid during
Thanksgiving with a guest Steve Bittenbender. Talked with a doctor
(04:13):
Schwa about some of the drugs that people now are
taking for weight loss which could be dangerous. Talk with
Nicole Davis about the Massachusetts teacher strikes, and talk with
doctor Lauren Nicholas about people having problem in older age
with finances, checkbooks and things like that as an early
indicator of potential issues with dementia. Spent the nine o'clock
(04:37):
hour talking about teacher strikes Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead. And
last hour talked about Seth Moulton's comments, which I think
are very justified as the Democratic Party reviews what it
did well and what it didn't do well enough in
the twenty twenty four election. And this hour we're going
to give you a chance to jop on board and
tell us about someone within your circle of friends, within
(05:00):
your family, within your community who served in the US military.
Because of course it's Veterans Day this weekend. Veterans Day
really began in November of nineteen nineteen. President Wilson proclaimed
Veterans Day as Armistice Day. That one year after the
(05:22):
war to end all Wars, and Veterans Day was adopted,
and finally in the nineteen fifties, President Eisenhower issued the
first Veterans Day Proclamation and then for a while it
was part of a three day holiday weekend based upon
a bill that passed called the Uniform Holiday Bill Act
(05:42):
of nineteen sixty eight, signed by President Lindon Johnson to
make sure that Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and
Columbus Day all fell on mondays to give people three
day weekends, but because of some of the confusion that
existed within the law, that issue was readdressed, and in
(06:04):
nineteen seventy five President Gerald Ford returned the Veterans Day
observance to the original date. It's no longer a three
day weekend, O Lord, will be this weekend because November
eleventh happens to call, happens to fall on a Monday.
So that's the purpose of Veterans Day. And this is
now your opportunity to join the conversation and tell us
(06:26):
about someone within your family, within your community, within your neighborhood,
maybe a distant relative who's no longer with us, maybe
someone who's still on duty somewhere around the globe tonight.
We are protected by military, both at home and abroad.
(06:49):
And without the US military, this countryman may not exist.
It was born in a revolution that started here in
Massachusetts continues to this day. We had a rough election
in twenty twenty, but we had I think, an election
that virtually everyone recognizes with an accurate reflection of how
(07:12):
the American people felt on November fifth, Tuesday, November fifth,
we're still calculating all of the votes and it's going
to be amazing. Eventually. At this point, Donald Trump has
four million more votes than Vice President Harris, and Donald Trump,
(07:35):
I guess, will top seventy five million, which will mean
that we will not have as many people voting in
this election as in twenty twenty, ironically, but he will
have won the electoral college and the popular vote, which
is what I think we needed, whether it was going
to be Vice President Harris who would succeed, or former
(07:58):
President Trump. It was not a close election FIA by
today's standards, and I think most people now have accepted
the result. There's a lot of second guessing in the
Democratic Party, which is understandable. But we're going to put
all of that conversation aside and let's focus on sacrifice
of veterans in your family, in your community. I'll talk
(08:23):
about my dad, who served during World War Two in
two very difficult years in China, Bournman, India. But you
can pick anyone you want six seven, two five four
ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
We'll be right back and let's begin our annual salute
to veterans here on Nightside.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Let's get right to the calls. We'll start off with
Larry and Dennisport. Larry, your first tonight on Nightside, Go
right ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Hi Dan, thanks for this most important discussion topic. I
would like to honor my father. He was a top
turret gunner on a B twenty four and he was
shot down over Germany. And he was a prisoner of war.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And survived a pow camp.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes, I will just tell you quickly how he survived.
Everybody and his crew bailed out and were captured by
the Germans. And when he was in the prison camp,
the Nazis lined up all the prisoners well being Jewish
obviously they were trying to separate the Jews, and the
(09:39):
pilot looked over at my father and started speaking Italian
to him. So the Nazi passed over my father thinking
he was Italian, saved his life.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And any Italian or did he just simply.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, Nope, didn't know any Italian at all.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
No, No, What would they done if they had figured
out that your dad was Jewish? What have been executed?
Or would he just been isolated?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
You know, I don't know. Usually it was mostly the
German citizens, the ones that lived in Germany that were
sent to the to the camps. I'm not sure what
they did with the Jewish prisoners. I have not really
studied that. My father didn't really talk about it too much.
So they called him the Greatest Generation, you know, for
(10:28):
a good reason. And anyway, he was involved with that
famous Hitler's forced March when the Allies started closing in
on the border and Hitler took all the prisoners and
was marching them into the center. And so he was
eating just rotten potatoes in the fields and everything, and
finally got liberated. I think he was about one sixty
(10:51):
five when he went in for weight and came out
at around one thirty five. Amazing guy to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, my dad was yeah, in Chinabourban, India during the
World War two, like your dad, and he spent two
and a half years over there, and it was a
tough part of the world to be in and he
was in the army, but he ended up taking a
lot of flights back and forth. He talked, He talked
(11:19):
about Joe Stillwell, who was the general over there, who
who was just admired by the by the troops he
talked about flying over the Hump, which is the Himalayas.
So he saw things that I've never seen.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
And obviously that was a time when China was our
ally so he was often involved in interactions with Chinese troops.
Now those were troops from Shankai Sheek's government of China,
not Miles Setung. Right. The thing I remember about my dad,
and I mentioned it before, so I won't I won't
(11:56):
spend a lot of time on it. But every Christmas
he would write Christmas cards to about eight or nine
of his buddies different parts of the country, Wyoming, Kentucky
and Longhand Christmas cards about what our family was doing
and what my brother and I were doing. And he
got the Christmas cards all Longhand, And of course as
(12:16):
the years went by, the number of those Christmas cards
as some of the veterans died off, diminished. But I
can just remember what sort of a bond there was
between those individuals. I don't think that any of them
ever had a reunion once they got home here to
the States. It just happened that way. You know, people
(12:37):
had jobs and they got a vacation for a week.
Back in those days, or two weeks, and it wasn't
like you got in the car. And I remember one
of his friends was a fellow named Paul Butler, I
always remember that name out of Kentucky. And there was
a guy Lionel Hitchcock out of Laramie, Wyoming. Never had
a chance to meet those individuals, but he kept in touch.
(13:01):
That Christmas card was very important. When he got a
Christmas card from them, he read it and he knew
all about their families as well. So I'm sure your
dad must have probably done some of the same, particularly
with the crew that had been that he had been
shot down with. I assume he must have kept in
touch with those guys over the.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Time, you know he's you know, I don't think he did.
He never really talked about it until he was diagnosed
with lung cancer when he was in the seventies, and
he started telling me some of these stories because he
wanted them to be remembered. Listen, they didn't call him
the Greatest Generation for nothing, no question.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And there were no comfort animals when they were now
and they were in Europe fighting, and they were eighteen
and many times eighteen and nineteen year old kids. What
year was your dad born.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Jeez, you had to ask how.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Old was how old was he he was in the service.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
He was I think he was twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, my dad was. My dad was a little older.
He he was. He signed up in nineteen forty two
and he was probably twenty six twenty seven years old,
so that was considered older and older GI.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Back in the Yeah, yeah, he was in the.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Army and came out as and finished up as a
staff sergeant.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That was.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah. My father was was a sergeant also. Yeah, Larry,
I appreciate the calle Yeah, thank you. On a good note,
I'd like to just mention to you my daughter Jill
might be coming home for a little vacation in January.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, I hope she's doing well and I'd love to
catch up with her on the phone, so you know,
if it's possible that when you talk to her, if
she's willing to spend an hour on the phone some
night as a guest, this is the young woman who
was actually running a business in Kabul, Afghanistan. Which an
American woman running a business in Kabul, Afghanistan. If that's
(14:56):
not a book, I don't know what is. So just
keep it up. I didn't ask her if she'd be willing.
We still broadcast remotely, Larry, as you know, so she could.
I assumed she would probably be visiting you down the
cape and we can.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yes, she's going to be might possibly be staying with us.
She's here on business, but you might be staying. I'll
let you know, Dan.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Thank you very much, Larry, appreciate it. Talk to you soon.
Have a great week and happy Veterans Day and memory.
Thanks uh if they were the greatest generation without a question.
Let me go next to Charlie who's in Saugust, Massachusetts. Charlie,
you're next on Night Side.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Welcome, Yes, Hi you good program. I'd like to mention
an uncle of mine who was in World War Two.
His name was Al Langdon and he was in the
US Navy in the Pacific and he served aboard a
mind sweeper in Little Walk too, and he when he
(15:56):
got out of the Navy, he continued to serve. He
had a firefighter of the Boston Fire Department, really and
his his firehouse was a really dirty one that got
as many as three calls on a single night.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
And he spent.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
What part of Boston was East Boston, East Boston okay, yeah,
and so his his first name was what.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
His first name was, el Alfred Langton and uh yeah,
And as a matter of fact, he spent the last
few years of his wife on oxygen tanks because of
damage to his long some of fighting fires.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, yeah, I mean it's it's amazing what firefighters in
the in the forties and fifties and even into the
sixties went through. We had that horrific tragedy the Von
Dome Hotel fire.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Really yeah, yeah, there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Was a uh several you know, we had the two
firefighters recently who were killed on on Beacon Street, that
fire that that March day a few years ago, we
lost to firefighters, including my hockey teammate Paul Lintini from
South Boston. Uh in the fire, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Right, yeah, you have to have a lot of cars still,
uh uh a firefighter these buildings and.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Obviously, yeah, I mean when a when a floor collapses,
you're you're basically in a fire pit. And that's that
is what has happened. And of course back in the
day when a lot of these buildings were built, they
didn't have the codes that we have today. And uh,
look and looking across the firefighters from nine to eleven.
What what is the number of the three hundred or
(17:52):
so who died, who who went into those two buildings,
the twin towers, knowing full well both of those buildings
were a flame and could collapse. Apps talk about talk
about courage. That was aff that was a new generation,
but just incredible courage for for all of them, and
for your for your uncle to be on you said,
(18:13):
a mind sweeper in the South in the Pacific. It's
dangerous work.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, it was dangerous work. Charlie, appreciate it at present now.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, absolutely, we all have a great and we all
agree that to them, no doubt, to the men and
women of World War and women in Korea, the men
and women of Vietnam, and the men and women of
what of those who are standing guard around the world today.
Charlie appreciate you call very much. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, takeically care. Happy veterans, same to you, sir.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And again this we this is Veterans Day, Memorial Day.
We celebrate the passing of veterans and the sacrifice. We
could celebrate their lives on Veterans Day and the sacrifice
they all taking a very quick break. We're coming back
right after the news here on Nightside.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Here on Nightside with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Back to the phone calls. We're celebrating Veterans Day and
giving you an opportunity to honor and acknowledge someone within
your family, within your community. I Leen, you were next
on Nightside. Who would you like to honor tonight? Eileen?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
Well, I honored him a year ago, but I didn't
get everything quite right, okay, And that's my uncle David.
And he graduated from Princeton University in nineteen forty one.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Tough to graduate from college, go ahead, and then he.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Was immediately drafted into the army. And I actually found
from the Princeton alum nye website he Uh, let's see,
he was assigned to be a navigator in October nineteen
(20:14):
forty three. Uh, he as in the Army Air Corps
and then he and then he was then but his
plane was shot down in nineteen forty four and he
(20:35):
suffered a back injury that nearly killed him.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
The other crew members on his.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Plane were all killed. And but he was in the
hot what what area was he in?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
These in the Pacific? In Europe? Where was he shot down?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
No, it was let's see, he was on route. I'm
looking at the uh what I found online and he
was en route to England in April of nineteen forty four.
And then after he did make he made a remarkable recovery.
And then like your father, he joined the Office of
(21:16):
Strategic Services and served in India and Burma until separating
in November nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Dad, it was not in the OSS he was. He
was in the Army as a staff sergeant in China
Bourban India as it was called CBI. Did your uncle
after we get out of the military and all of that,
did he have a good life? I hope after having sacrificed.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
So much he actually he did, but he had life
lifelong PTSD. You know, he would wake up in the
middle of the night crying and I remember this.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But he.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Went to law school after he got out, and he
and he got his law degree from the University of Florida,
and that's where he practiced law. He was a real
estate lawyer. He managed big citrus groves and so forth.
(22:26):
And I was very, very proud of him. He was
my favorite uncle.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Well, I'm glad that you that you got it all
in the record, Leen, he did a good job and
that just shows the sacrifice from from Princeton to being
shot down and having his back injury that he probably
carried that with him for the rest of his life. Aileen,
I got a role here because I got a couple more.
I got to get in here and then we will
talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
Okay, Yeah, thanks Dan, good night very nice.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yes, good night to you and have a great weekend. Okay.
Coming up next, Ray is in reading. Ray, you were
next on Nightside. Welcome TYI.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Thanks Dan. I like to remember, like your previous callers,
the Greatest Generation, my dad was a B seventeen pilot
thirty three missions, shot down twice second time pow managed
to escape, made it back home, continued a career like
every other American, became an American history professor and was
(23:24):
the laison officer for the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Was he a history professor at the Air Force Academy too?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, no, no, no. He After when he came home
from the war, he became a history professor as full
time vocation and then continued service in the Air Force
Reserves and was the what they call the liaison officer
for the Air Force Academy went off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I'm really curious with did he where did he teach,
and what was his area of expertise as a history professor?
What was his his area us.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And mayor and history expertise? And he caught at Gordon College.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Oh sure, Gordon College right up the road here in Massachusetts. Sure.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, And he essentially wrote all of you know, went
to the high school, to the presentation on attending the academy,
interviewed the interviewee, and wrote recommendations for Senator Brooke and
Senator Kennedy and for the appointments to the academy.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Sure yeah, absolutely, Well that's great from becoming a B
seventeen pilot and the pow now a part of history.
I mean, that's someone who wasn't on the sidelines. He
was in the middle of the battle. That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah. And then two Gold Hopenleague cuffs and the Distinguished
Flying Cross he was awarded and I never really talked about.
I learned a lot by researching myself and talking to
other members of his crew. And then more importantly, when
I remember my uncle who I'm named after, the loss
his life in the Battle of the Bulge.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So you had more than one direct family member involved
in World War Two.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, And truthfully, I haven't I haven't met
I haven't met in my young years, I am. I
haven't met anyone else that had actually a family member killed,
you know, in World War Two. You know, you know,
it's pretty significant, and it was, you know significant my
mom and her family, which is, you know, my mom's brother.
(25:26):
I never met him in there. Obviously, they named myself
after him, so I wanted to remember him in the sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I was telling a story today to a friend of
mine about someone who you've never heard of. He was
a major league pitcher's name was White Wilhelm. He was
in the Battle of the Bulich, and he was wounded
in World War Two. Anyhow, came back and pitched for
twenty one years in the big leagues. Wow, yeow in
(25:55):
the fifties and sixties, the late forties, in the fifties
and sixties, White Wilhelm a great knuckleball pitcher, by the way,
and anyone who would who knows much about baseball knows
Hoyt Wilhelm. But he was as an American soldier, was
in the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Wow. Yeah, that generation. I don't think there's no one
like them, you know, I'm convinced of that now the
more I've learned and the more I've read about it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And he's a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame,
inducted into the Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Wow wow, yeah. Yeah, it's just incredible. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And it's a great trivia question. By the way, if
you want a trivia question, you could look it up.
He's a major The question is name the major League
baseball player who hit a home run in his first
time at that played for twenty two years in the
big leagues. I think that was the number of years
that he played. He was in fifties and he broke
(26:56):
in in fifty two, so probably twenty years in the
big leagues and never hit another home and people will
go crazy, and it was hot. Wilhelm. He hit a
home run in Polar Grounds in nineteen fifty two. The
Polar Grounds hit a very short right field foul pole.
It was only two hundred and fifty two feet from
home plate. It was about fifty feet shorter than the
(27:16):
Pescu pole of Fenway Park, and as a pitcher. You
know you didn't hit many home runs and uh yeah,
wow White Wilhelm.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Now that is that is a good question, that will
that's a great trick question.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, yeah, really is, particularly if you're a baseball fan. Ray.
I loved the story about your your your your dad
and about your uncle. Uh and uh. And I hope
you know if you've ever called before, but I hope
you become a more regular caller.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, I have a first time caller, but an avid listener.
So give me a round of applause.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's my thought. Because I never remembered to Ray for reading.
I got a pretty good memory for names. Well, thank you, sar,
and I loved the call and call any night.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay, thanks very yeah, thank you, thank you night.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Let me go to Maureene and Weymouth. Hi, Maureen, welcome.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 8 (28:09):
I'm good, Keanne, how are you?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I'm doing great. Who would you like to remember on
this tribute to Veteran's Day.
Speaker 8 (28:17):
Well, I had a grandfather, a maternal grandfather who used
to fly on blimp during World War One. He survived
really and I had yes, and then I had my father,
his sister and uncle all were in the service during
(28:38):
World War Two, and unfortunately, my father's brother, at age
twenty three, was on a submarine and it was after
Pearl Harbor had been bombed and they the sub was
on the way there and they were oh, you know,
(28:59):
something happened and they were lost at see to this
day have never been found. And that was my father's brother.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Oh, your uncle.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Even my father's brother.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
Was only yeah, he was only twenty three. My father
was like twenty one. And his sister, my aunt, she
was also but she, you know, she didn't go overseas
or anything. She was in the navy. My father was
in the navy. And yeah, my uncle, I have a
brother that was named after him, and I have a
(29:33):
twin brother and a brother that were went off you know,
during right out of high school. They were drafted in
nineteen it was nineteen sixty nine or nineteen seventy, and
one went into submarines and the other one was in
helicopters over in Vietnam, and thank god, they came back safely.
(29:57):
But yeah, we've always you know, I never knew my
uncle that of course, you know, my parents weren't even
married at the time when he was lost at sea.
But that was, you know, very hot on my father's
family obviously.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Wow. Well what great stories, what great stories, Maureen. You
have a family that has given such great service to
the country.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Yes, they have.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I hope you have some records of them. To be
honest with you, I really do hope you have some
records of them.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yes, my brother is my twin brother. He's he's got
a lot of the information. He's actually gotten a diary
from my uncle that was lost at sea on some
other missions that he was on, and you know he does.
He's got medals and you know, purple.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
Hot all that stuff.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
But yeah, they were. They were very proud of all
of them.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The greatest generation, exactly, no doubt, no doubt. Marie. Thanks
as always for calling and supporting the program. And it
was a great shot.
Speaker 8 (31:10):
Yes, and I appreciate it for you taking my call.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Jean.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
You have a good night and a and a good weekend.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
You have a great weekend, Thanks Marie. Talk to you soon.
Speaker 8 (31:20):
Okay, good night, good night.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right, we're going to take a quick break here.
I got Christine, she's coming up. Alex and Richard and
I got a little room for a couple more if
you want six one, seven, ten thirty six seven honoring
and by the way, everyone so far has honored people
from World War Two. You may have a relative who
(31:44):
served more recently than that. Their service uh, whether it's
in Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever police feel free, this is your
opportunity to salute a family member, a friend, a member
of your community, a neighbor. We'll be back on Nightside.
By the way, our great friend Bill brett Uh is
(32:07):
working on a book which will be coming out next
Memorial Day about people from the the Greater Boston area,
New England who served in the military, and it's going
to be another one of his great coffee table books.
We'll talk with Bill about that at some point. Coming
right back on Nightside. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
nights Side Studios on DOMBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Okay, we get pack lines. I'm going to ask everybody
to just tighten it up, so we get everybody in.
Christine and Debtim your next Linezech, Christine, go right ahead.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
I wanted to remember my dad. He was in Korean
War really Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
He was, yeah, and he came home safe and sounds
and I hope Christine.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
He did.
Speaker 7 (33:02):
He came home taking time. But when he got off
one of the planes, he stepped on a land mine
and the piece of them, the landmine went up into
his eye. He lost his eye and he came home. Yeah,
he went to BU graduated from VU and then went
into the insurance business.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
With so many years.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's great. Yeah, and I hope he had a good
and a long life.
Speaker 7 (33:28):
He at the end he suffered. He had Alzheimer's in
Parkinson's disease for quite a number of years. He was very,
very sad.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
End that's a tough. But did he did he talk
much about his military service.
Speaker 7 (33:43):
He didn't like talking about time he brought up. He
got very sad. He wouldn't. He didn't like to talk
about it.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Okay, Well, yeah, he sacrificed greatly, that's for sure.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
So yeah, and my uncle was close. Got his brother
and now my nephew, my third oldest brother, his son,
William is in the army in Germany. Right now.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Well, that's that's great. So we honored a gentleman. What's
his first name, Christine?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Uh, my father, No, No, the.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
The your the nephew that's in Germany, William O'Brien. All right, Christine,
that's great. We got it all in. Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
I sort of let you know if you're interested. The
Germans homes having better sing Monday morning at ninth already
my mother is at the German home.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Is that the one in West Roxbury? Yeah, yeah, no,
I know it well, I know it well, Okay, people
in West Roxbury and dead. I'm sure I've been there.
I had a friend of mine who spent a lot
of time there recuperating. Thank you, Christine, I.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Remember you telling me that, Okay, have a good weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You have a great weekend. Thanks. Good night. Let me
go next to Alex and Millis. Alex, we're getting a
little late here. Who are you going to honor for
us tonight?
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Oh? My late dad. He just died. He just passed
away recently. He was ninety six. But he wasn't a
US veteran. He served overseas, uh, you know, with the
Nazis against the Nazis and UH and the forces of
Mussulin in Greece. And then my brother Frank, he's uh,
he's currently uh in the reserves, but he was in
(35:23):
the Air Force. UH served in Lackland.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So your dad served in the Greek military.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Yes, he escaped actually from Uh. He was at the
time right now with Albania. But and he met my
mom in in Greece. But he Uh, he had picked
up arms to defend defend his Uh town against the
Nazis in the atrocities that committee.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, that's your dad had to be a pretty courageous guy.
And he lived a long life till nineties. God bless him. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Self educated, and he was orphaned very young. But you
know they say, what doesn't what doesn't kill you, makes
you stronger. He was cool for that, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Alex. Thank you. I'm jamming everybody here in the I
still liah full and thank you so much. Great to
hear your voice. Talk to you soon. Where we're going
to go next, I'm going to Richard and the Hot Richard,
You're next to Night's. I'd got three behind you, Richard,
go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Yeah, okay. Honoring my father. He was born in nineteen
hundred and he was in the Navy when he was
like eighteen and World War One, whoa yeah, and after
that I was over not too much excitement in the
navy in World War One. He would joined the Merchant Marines,
and then after that he spent a lot of the
(36:48):
time in night school and he finally earned a Merchant
Marines chief Engineer's license.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Experience.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, So in nineteen forty two he joined the
Navy again and as a chief engineer on a destroyer
escort as a lieutenant commander, and he, uh, he got
torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea, but they shut all the
front of the barley. They took up torpedo in the barley,
(37:16):
shut all it all off, and they got back into
port but he got a lot of his ribs broken,
so they shipped them by a plane to a hospital
in Argentina, you know. And then after that, all of
a sudden we got a call fromhim. He was up
in Portland, Maine. I don't know how he got there, but
he was coming down to Boston. So we, uh we
(37:39):
went in town and met him for a while for
about five or six hours, and then he took a
train all the way out to California and he uh.
We got the chief engineer on a troop troop transport
thirty three five hundred men on it, and they were
getting ready for the invasion of Japan and then, of
(37:59):
course bombs were dropped in in Japan surrender, so then
he had to put the occupation on me into into Japan.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's it's amazing, what what what? What stories we've heard tonight,
and yours is one of them. Richard, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
I got I got one. Uh the Dorchester. My wife's
my wife's father. He died, he got torpedoed and killed
on the Dorchester, the one where the four chaplains gave
up there, gave up there like Jackets.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay, I'm not familiar with that story, but I got
three more folks. I got to get to Richard in
fairness to them. So thank you so much for tonight. Okay,
very much. You bet. Carol is an ever, Carol, you
got to be quick for me. I hate to do
the see, but you've called lake. Go ahead, Carol.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Hi.
Speaker 9 (38:45):
I just wanted to honor my uncle Charlie. He fought
in the Battle of Normandy and right on the beach,
and he survived it, and he went back and he
visited decades later later, and uh, and his name is
carved in the wall, still in the bunk, because the
(39:06):
bunk is now the seller of a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Oh, that's a great story. That's a great story. I
hope you got to know him well as you were
growing up.
Speaker 9 (39:16):
Oh, I live next door to him.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Thanks so much, Thanks so much. I just got two more.
I'm going to try to thank you in here. Thank you, Carol.
We'll talk again. Okay, thanks very much. Good night. Let's
go to Richard Arlington. Rich I got you, and I
got one behind you got John and Drake. All right?
Speaker 10 (39:33):
Yeah, my father, John Butler fought in the Battle of
the Bulge in the tanks for General Patton. He was
a got injured and they got a purple Hot. He
was also received a Bronze Stop for rescuing his comrades
under machine gun fire. And also he was nominated for
(39:54):
the Silver Saw. And then the war ended, but he
he was when his tank blew up. He was hitting
out in a potato cella by some a young couple.
I've got a great picture of him sitting on the
tank with the young couple. After the war ended, and
he conversed with them and after the war, and so
(40:17):
I think of them all the time. And he died
of cancer at age sixty eight. But he survived the
Battle of the Bulge.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Thank you very much for that one quick thing, and
I got together okay, behind by thanks man John and Draco. John,
I got about thirty seconds for you. You're going to
be the last call of the night. Go ahead, all right.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
My father, US Coast Guard veteran Robert Deeker Joyce, loved
the military so much, loved this country. He passed away
in twenty nineteen on July fourth.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
How about that day. I have a couple of presidents.
I think I think that Adams also passed away on
July fourth. John, thank you, I'll bet he did. We
all do? We all do? Thanks, John, appreciate it so much.
To all the calls, I want to thanks very much.
I want to thank all of them very much. I
want to thank all of you for listening. I want
(41:13):
to thank Robin did a great job tonight. We had
a great week. Rob, welcome back. Thank you very much. Marita,
thank you very much. She's probably listening, but she did
a great job producing all week. It was a historic
week here on Nightside. Remember this week for a long time. Everybody.
My name's Dan Ray. I'll end us always. All dogs,
all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's what my
(41:33):
pal Charlie ray Is who passed fourteen years ago in February.
That's where all your pets are who were passed. They
loved you and you love them. I do believe you'll
see them again. Hope to see again on Monday night
here on night Side. You could listen to me on Facebook.
I'll be here in about two minutes. Thanks everybody, have
a great weekend. God bless
It's nice size Boston's news radio before your sports fans
out there. The Celtics eked out and overtime went over
the Brooklyn Nets tonight at the Fleet at the Center,
I was going to say the Police Center had at
the Garden, the TD Bank North Garden, whatever the hell
they call it these days anyway, So what are we
(00:22):
talking about? What have we talked about this week? Well,
we've talked about a lot of different subjects, as we
do every week. Monday Night, we talked about overachieving at work,
It's not good for life, balance, talk with about Alzheimer's awareness.
We talked about the e MK, the Edward M. Kennedy
Institute for the Senate over at Columbia Point, talked about
(00:45):
National Family Caregiver Month this month with Bob Coughlin. And then,
of course on Monday it was election Eve, we talked
about the Massachusetts ballot questions and then we asked people,
invited them to engage in some predictions, and we're going
to have a winner probably by Monday night. It looks
to me as if the two states that are still
(01:07):
in question, Nevada and Arizona, are trending towards Donald Trump.
So I think he's going to get up around three
hundred and twelve in my opinion, but we will wait
until there's a final agreed upon judgment in terms of
numbers before we tell which of you who were making
predictions last Friday night actually or in Monday night one.
(01:30):
So we'd hope to have a winner, but I think
I know who it's going to be. We'll leave it. So.
Of course, on Tuesday night we had election coverage, a
really great newsroom coverage, and during that program I had
an opportunity to do eight interviews with During the eight
o'clock I with Jim Brett, the president of the New
England Council, with Massachuset State represented David Lynsky of Natick
(01:53):
and Wayland about the efforts by Democratic Party nationally to
do better in in getting control of state legislators, because
state legislatures are the ones that actually draw the congressional
lines in the various states. Talked with nine o'clock Apple
with former Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Mike Capawano, talked with Massachusetts
(02:16):
Republican chair Amy CARNIVALI at ten o'clock talked with Congressman
Seth Moulton, Democrat from Massachusetts, and also with New Hampshire
Governor Chris Sanunu, who was celebrating his fiftieth birthday. At
eleven o'clock, talked with former Massachuset Lieutenant Governor Tom O'Neil,
the son of the great former House Speaker Tip O'Neil,
and also talked with Emerson College pollster Spencer Kimball. Wednesday night,
(02:40):
we talked about a couple of events for veterans, Bill
Pennington's Run for the Troops and Bill Moore's Project New Hope.
We also talked with a professor from NYU, Marian Nessel,
about is there a healthy soda? And then talk with
doctor Kenton Kaufman of the Mayo Clinic out in Minnesota
about how the balance is so important to older people,
(03:03):
those of us on the wrong side of fifties, so
that we don't fall. And we then had two hours
of election night reaction the night after. At that point
we knew we have been told early in the week
oh this election. We might not know for three days,
or we might not know until the weekend. Well, we
knew sometime really early Wednesday morning. On Thursday, we talked
(03:27):
with Chris Price at the Boston Globe about the struggling patriots.
We talked with Mark Erickson of New Hampshire Special Olympics
about a series of bowling tournaments up there this weekend.
Talk with doctor Laura Gabayan about people getting past the election,
and talked with Hayden Frank the National Weather Service about
the severe drought we're dealing with here in Massachusetts. Talked
(03:48):
about the Karen Reid a State Supreme Court argument which
took place on Wednesday with Attorney Phil Tracy of Boston,
and we talked about last night for two hours about
Joe Biden's invitation to President Elect Trump to visit at
the White House in the not too distant future. And
tonight we talked about staying away, topics to avoid during
Thanksgiving with a guest Steve Bittenbender. Talked with a doctor
(04:13):
Schwa about some of the drugs that people now are
taking for weight loss which could be dangerous. Talk with
Nicole Davis about the Massachusetts teacher strikes, and talk with
doctor Lauren Nicholas about people having problem in older age
with finances, checkbooks and things like that as an early
indicator of potential issues with dementia. Spent the nine o'clock
(04:37):
hour talking about teacher strikes Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead. And
last hour talked about Seth Moulton's comments, which I think
are very justified as the Democratic Party reviews what it
did well and what it didn't do well enough in
the twenty twenty four election. And this hour we're going
to give you a chance to jop on board and
tell us about someone within your circle of friends, within
(05:00):
your family, within your community who served in the US military.
Because of course it's Veterans Day this weekend. Veterans Day
really began in November of nineteen nineteen. President Wilson proclaimed
Veterans Day as Armistice Day. That one year after the
(05:22):
war to end all Wars, and Veterans Day was adopted,
and finally in the nineteen fifties, President Eisenhower issued the
first Veterans Day Proclamation and then for a while it
was part of a three day holiday weekend based upon
a bill that passed called the Uniform Holiday Bill Act
(05:42):
of nineteen sixty eight, signed by President Lindon Johnson to
make sure that Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and
Columbus Day all fell on mondays to give people three
day weekends, but because of some of the confusion that
existed within the law, that issue was readdressed, and in
(06:04):
nineteen seventy five President Gerald Ford returned the Veterans Day
observance to the original date. It's no longer a three
day weekend, O Lord, will be this weekend because November
eleventh happens to call, happens to fall on a Monday.
So that's the purpose of Veterans Day. And this is
now your opportunity to join the conversation and tell us
(06:26):
about someone within your family, within your community, within your neighborhood,
maybe a distant relative who's no longer with us, maybe
someone who's still on duty somewhere around the globe tonight.
We are protected by military, both at home and abroad.
(06:49):
And without the US military, this countryman may not exist.
It was born in a revolution that started here in
Massachusetts continues to this day. We had a rough election
in twenty twenty, but we had I think, an election
that virtually everyone recognizes with an accurate reflection of how
(07:12):
the American people felt on November fifth, Tuesday, November fifth,
we're still calculating all of the votes and it's going
to be amazing. Eventually. At this point, Donald Trump has
four million more votes than Vice President Harris, and Donald Trump,
(07:35):
I guess, will top seventy five million, which will mean
that we will not have as many people voting in
this election as in twenty twenty, ironically, but he will
have won the electoral college and the popular vote, which
is what I think we needed, whether it was going
to be Vice President Harris who would succeed, or former
(07:58):
President Trump. It was not a close election FIA by
today's standards, and I think most people now have accepted
the result. There's a lot of second guessing in the
Democratic Party, which is understandable. But we're going to put
all of that conversation aside and let's focus on sacrifice
of veterans in your family, in your community. I'll talk
(08:23):
about my dad, who served during World War Two in
two very difficult years in China, Bournman, India. But you
can pick anyone you want six seven, two five four
ten thirty or six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
We'll be right back and let's begin our annual salute
to veterans here on Nightside.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Let's get right to the calls. We'll start off with
Larry and Dennisport. Larry, your first tonight on Nightside, Go
right ahead.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Hi Dan, thanks for this most important discussion topic. I
would like to honor my father. He was a top
turret gunner on a B twenty four and he was
shot down over Germany. And he was a prisoner of war.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And survived a pow camp.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes, I will just tell you quickly how he survived.
Everybody and his crew bailed out and were captured by
the Germans. And when he was in the prison camp,
the Nazis lined up all the prisoners well being Jewish
obviously they were trying to separate the Jews, and the
(09:39):
pilot looked over at my father and started speaking Italian
to him. So the Nazi passed over my father thinking
he was Italian, saved his life.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And any Italian or did he just simply.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, Nope, didn't know any Italian at all.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
No, No, What would they done if they had figured
out that your dad was Jewish? What have been executed?
Or would he just been isolated?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
You know, I don't know. Usually it was mostly the
German citizens, the ones that lived in Germany that were
sent to the to the camps. I'm not sure what
they did with the Jewish prisoners. I have not really
studied that. My father didn't really talk about it too much.
So they called him the Greatest Generation, you know, for
(10:28):
a good reason. And anyway, he was involved with that
famous Hitler's forced March when the Allies started closing in
on the border and Hitler took all the prisoners and
was marching them into the center. And so he was
eating just rotten potatoes in the fields and everything, and
finally got liberated. I think he was about one sixty
(10:51):
five when he went in for weight and came out
at around one thirty five. Amazing guy to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Well, my dad was yeah, in Chinabourban, India during the
World War two, like your dad, and he spent two
and a half years over there, and it was a
tough part of the world to be in and he
was in the army, but he ended up taking a
lot of flights back and forth. He talked, He talked
(11:19):
about Joe Stillwell, who was the general over there, who
who was just admired by the by the troops he
talked about flying over the Hump, which is the Himalayas.
So he saw things that I've never seen.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
And obviously that was a time when China was our
ally so he was often involved in interactions with Chinese troops.
Now those were troops from Shankai Sheek's government of China,
not Miles Setung. Right. The thing I remember about my dad,
and I mentioned it before, so I won't I won't
(11:56):
spend a lot of time on it. But every Christmas
he would write Christmas cards to about eight or nine
of his buddies different parts of the country, Wyoming, Kentucky
and Longhand Christmas cards about what our family was doing
and what my brother and I were doing. And he
got the Christmas cards all Longhand, And of course as
(12:16):
the years went by, the number of those Christmas cards
as some of the veterans died off, diminished. But I
can just remember what sort of a bond there was
between those individuals. I don't think that any of them
ever had a reunion once they got home here to
the States. It just happened that way. You know, people
(12:37):
had jobs and they got a vacation for a week.
Back in those days, or two weeks, and it wasn't
like you got in the car. And I remember one
of his friends was a fellow named Paul Butler, I
always remember that name out of Kentucky. And there was
a guy Lionel Hitchcock out of Laramie, Wyoming. Never had
a chance to meet those individuals, but he kept in touch.
(13:01):
That Christmas card was very important. When he got a
Christmas card from them, he read it and he knew
all about their families as well. So I'm sure your
dad must have probably done some of the same, particularly
with the crew that had been that he had been
shot down with. I assume he must have kept in
touch with those guys over the.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Time, you know he's you know, I don't think he did.
He never really talked about it until he was diagnosed
with lung cancer when he was in the seventies, and
he started telling me some of these stories because he
wanted them to be remembered. Listen, they didn't call him
the Greatest Generation for nothing, no question.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And there were no comfort animals when they were now
and they were in Europe fighting, and they were eighteen
and many times eighteen and nineteen year old kids. What
year was your dad born.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Jeez, you had to ask how.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Old was how old was he he was in the service.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
He was I think he was twenty years old.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, my dad was. My dad was a little older.
He he was. He signed up in nineteen forty two
and he was probably twenty six twenty seven years old,
so that was considered older and older GI.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Back in the Yeah, yeah, he was in the.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Army and came out as and finished up as a
staff sergeant.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That was.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah. My father was was a sergeant also. Yeah, Larry,
I appreciate the calle Yeah, thank you. On a good note,
I'd like to just mention to you my daughter Jill
might be coming home for a little vacation in January.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, I hope she's doing well and I'd love to
catch up with her on the phone, so you know,
if it's possible that when you talk to her, if
she's willing to spend an hour on the phone some
night as a guest, this is the young woman who
was actually running a business in Kabul, Afghanistan. Which an
American woman running a business in Kabul, Afghanistan. If that's
(14:56):
not a book, I don't know what is. So just
keep it up. I didn't ask her if she'd be willing.
We still broadcast remotely, Larry, as you know, so she could.
I assumed she would probably be visiting you down the
cape and we can.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yes, she's going to be might possibly be staying with us.
She's here on business, but you might be staying. I'll
let you know, Dan.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Thank you very much, Larry, appreciate it. Talk to you soon.
Have a great week and happy Veterans Day and memory.
Thanks uh if they were the greatest generation without a question.
Let me go next to Charlie who's in Saugust, Massachusetts. Charlie,
you're next on Night Side.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Welcome, Yes, Hi you good program. I'd like to mention
an uncle of mine who was in World War Two.
His name was Al Langdon and he was in the
US Navy in the Pacific and he served aboard a
mind sweeper in Little Walk too, and he when he
(15:56):
got out of the Navy, he continued to serve. He
had a firefighter of the Boston Fire Department, really and
his his firehouse was a really dirty one that got
as many as three calls on a single night.
Speaker 5 (16:14):
And he spent.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
What part of Boston was East Boston, East Boston okay, yeah,
and so his his first name was what.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
His first name was, el Alfred Langton and uh yeah,
And as a matter of fact, he spent the last
few years of his wife on oxygen tanks because of
damage to his long some of fighting fires.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, yeah, I mean it's it's amazing what firefighters in
the in the forties and fifties and even into the
sixties went through. We had that horrific tragedy the Von
Dome Hotel fire.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Really yeah, yeah, there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Was a uh several you know, we had the two
firefighters recently who were killed on on Beacon Street, that
fire that that March day a few years ago, we
lost to firefighters, including my hockey teammate Paul Lintini from
South Boston. Uh in the fire, yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Right, yeah, you have to have a lot of cars still,
uh uh a firefighter these buildings and.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Obviously, yeah, I mean when a when a floor collapses,
you're you're basically in a fire pit. And that's that
is what has happened. And of course back in the
day when a lot of these buildings were built, they
didn't have the codes that we have today. And uh,
look and looking across the firefighters from nine to eleven.
What what is the number of the three hundred or
(17:52):
so who died, who who went into those two buildings,
the twin towers, knowing full well both of those buildings
were a flame and could collapse. Apps talk about talk
about courage. That was aff that was a new generation,
but just incredible courage for for all of them, and
for your for your uncle to be on you said,
(18:13):
a mind sweeper in the South in the Pacific. It's
dangerous work.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, it was dangerous work. Charlie, appreciate it at present now.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, absolutely, we all have a great and we all
agree that to them, no doubt, to the men and
women of World War and women in Korea, the men
and women of Vietnam, and the men and women of
what of those who are standing guard around the world today.
Charlie appreciate you call very much. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yeah, yeah, takeically care. Happy veterans, same to you, sir.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And again this we this is Veterans Day, Memorial Day.
We celebrate the passing of veterans and the sacrifice. We
could celebrate their lives on Veterans Day and the sacrifice
they all taking a very quick break. We're coming back
right after the news here on Nightside.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Here on Nightside with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Back to the phone calls. We're celebrating Veterans Day and
giving you an opportunity to honor and acknowledge someone within
your family, within your community. I Leen, you were next
on Nightside. Who would you like to honor tonight? Eileen?
Speaker 6 (19:25):
Well, I honored him a year ago, but I didn't
get everything quite right, okay, And that's my uncle David.
And he graduated from Princeton University in nineteen forty one.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Tough to graduate from college, go ahead, and then he.
Speaker 6 (19:50):
Was immediately drafted into the army. And I actually found
from the Princeton alum nye website he Uh, let's see,
he was assigned to be a navigator in October nineteen
(20:14):
forty three. Uh, he as in the Army Air Corps
and then he and then he was then but his
plane was shot down in nineteen forty four and he
(20:35):
suffered a back injury that nearly killed him.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
The other crew members on his.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Plane were all killed. And but he was in the
hot what what area was he in?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
These in the Pacific? In Europe? Where was he shot down?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
No, it was let's see, he was on route. I'm
looking at the uh what I found online and he
was en route to England in April of nineteen forty four.
And then after he did make he made a remarkable recovery.
And then like your father, he joined the Office of
(21:16):
Strategic Services and served in India and Burma until separating
in November nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Dad, it was not in the OSS he was. He
was in the Army as a staff sergeant in China
Bourban India as it was called CBI. Did your uncle
after we get out of the military and all of that,
did he have a good life? I hope after having sacrificed.
Speaker 6 (21:44):
So much he actually he did, but he had life
lifelong PTSD. You know, he would wake up in the
middle of the night crying and I remember this.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
But he.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Went to law school after he got out, and he
and he got his law degree from the University of Florida,
and that's where he practiced law. He was a real
estate lawyer. He managed big citrus groves and so forth.
(22:26):
And I was very, very proud of him. He was
my favorite uncle.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Well, I'm glad that you that you got it all
in the record, Leen, he did a good job and
that just shows the sacrifice from from Princeton to being
shot down and having his back injury that he probably
carried that with him for the rest of his life. Aileen,
I got a role here because I got a couple more.
I got to get in here and then we will
talk again. Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
Okay, Yeah, thanks Dan, good night very nice.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yes, good night to you and have a great weekend. Okay.
Coming up next, Ray is in reading. Ray, you were
next on Nightside. Welcome TYI.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Thanks Dan. I like to remember, like your previous callers,
the Greatest Generation, my dad was a B seventeen pilot
thirty three missions, shot down twice second time pow managed
to escape, made it back home, continued a career like
every other American, became an American history professor and was
(23:24):
the laison officer for the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Was he a history professor at the Air Force Academy too?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, no, no, no. He After when he came home
from the war, he became a history professor as full
time vocation and then continued service in the Air Force
Reserves and was the what they call the liaison officer
for the Air Force Academy went off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
I'm really curious with did he where did he teach,
and what was his area of expertise as a history professor?
What was his his area us.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And mayor and history expertise? And he caught at Gordon College.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Oh sure, Gordon College right up the road here in Massachusetts. Sure.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, And he essentially wrote all of you know, went
to the high school, to the presentation on attending the academy,
interviewed the interviewee, and wrote recommendations for Senator Brooke and
Senator Kennedy and for the appointments to the academy.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Sure yeah, absolutely, Well that's great from becoming a B
seventeen pilot and the pow now a part of history.
I mean, that's someone who wasn't on the sidelines. He
was in the middle of the battle. That's a great story.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Yeah. And then two Gold Hopenleague cuffs and the Distinguished
Flying Cross he was awarded and I never really talked about.
I learned a lot by researching myself and talking to
other members of his crew. And then more importantly, when
I remember my uncle who I'm named after, the loss
his life in the Battle of the Bulge.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So you had more than one direct family member involved
in World War Two.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, And truthfully, I haven't I haven't met
I haven't met in my young years, I am. I
haven't met anyone else that had actually a family member killed,
you know, in World War Two. You know, you know,
it's pretty significant, and it was, you know significant my
mom and her family, which is, you know, my mom's brother.
(25:26):
I never met him in there. Obviously, they named myself
after him, so I wanted to remember him in the sacrifice.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I was telling a story today to a friend of
mine about someone who you've never heard of. He was
a major league pitcher's name was White Wilhelm. He was
in the Battle of the Bulich, and he was wounded
in World War Two. Anyhow, came back and pitched for
twenty one years in the big leagues. Wow, yeow in
(25:55):
the fifties and sixties, the late forties, in the fifties
and sixties, White Wilhelm a great knuckleball pitcher, by the way,
and anyone who would who knows much about baseball knows
Hoyt Wilhelm. But he was as an American soldier, was
in the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Wow. Yeah, that generation. I don't think there's no one
like them, you know, I'm convinced of that now the
more I've learned and the more I've read about it.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
And he's a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame,
inducted into the Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Wow wow, yeah. Yeah, it's just incredible. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And it's a great trivia question. By the way, if
you want a trivia question, you could look it up.
He's a major The question is name the major League
baseball player who hit a home run in his first
time at that played for twenty two years in the
big leagues. I think that was the number of years
that he played. He was in fifties and he broke
(26:56):
in in fifty two, so probably twenty years in the
big leagues and never hit another home and people will
go crazy, and it was hot. Wilhelm. He hit a
home run in Polar Grounds in nineteen fifty two. The
Polar Grounds hit a very short right field foul pole.
It was only two hundred and fifty two feet from
home plate. It was about fifty feet shorter than the
(27:16):
Pescu pole of Fenway Park, and as a pitcher. You
know you didn't hit many home runs and uh yeah,
wow White Wilhelm.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Now that is that is a good question, that will
that's a great trick question.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, yeah, really is, particularly if you're a baseball fan. Ray.
I loved the story about your your your your dad
and about your uncle. Uh and uh. And I hope
you know if you've ever called before, but I hope
you become a more regular caller.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, I have a first time caller, but an avid listener.
So give me a round of applause.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's my thought. Because I never remembered to Ray for reading.
I got a pretty good memory for names. Well, thank you, sar,
and I loved the call and call any night.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Okay, thanks very yeah, thank you, thank you night.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Let me go to Maureene and Weymouth. Hi, Maureen, welcome.
How are you tonight?
Speaker 8 (28:09):
I'm good, Keanne, how are you?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I'm doing great. Who would you like to remember on
this tribute to Veteran's Day.
Speaker 8 (28:17):
Well, I had a grandfather, a maternal grandfather who used
to fly on blimp during World War One. He survived
really and I had yes, and then I had my father,
his sister and uncle all were in the service during
(28:38):
World War Two, and unfortunately, my father's brother, at age
twenty three, was on a submarine and it was after
Pearl Harbor had been bombed and they the sub was
on the way there and they were oh, you know,
(28:59):
something happened and they were lost at see to this
day have never been found. And that was my father's brother.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Oh, your uncle.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Even my father's brother.
Speaker 8 (29:13):
Was only yeah, he was only twenty three. My father
was like twenty one. And his sister, my aunt, she
was also but she, you know, she didn't go overseas
or anything. She was in the navy. My father was
in the navy. And yeah, my uncle, I have a
brother that was named after him, and I have a
(29:33):
twin brother and a brother that were went off you know,
during right out of high school. They were drafted in
nineteen it was nineteen sixty nine or nineteen seventy, and
one went into submarines and the other one was in
helicopters over in Vietnam, and thank god, they came back safely.
(29:57):
But yeah, we've always you know, I never knew my
uncle that of course, you know, my parents weren't even
married at the time when he was lost at sea.
But that was, you know, very hot on my father's
family obviously.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Wow. Well what great stories, what great stories, Maureen. You
have a family that has given such great service to
the country.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Yes, they have.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
I hope you have some records of them. To be
honest with you, I really do hope you have some
records of them.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yes, my brother is my twin brother. He's he's got
a lot of the information. He's actually gotten a diary
from my uncle that was lost at sea on some
other missions that he was on, and you know he does.
He's got medals and you know, purple.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
Hot all that stuff.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
But yeah, they were. They were very proud of all
of them.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
The greatest generation, exactly, no doubt, no doubt. Marie. Thanks
as always for calling and supporting the program. And it
was a great shot.
Speaker 8 (31:10):
Yes, and I appreciate it for you taking my call.
Speaker 7 (31:14):
Jean.
Speaker 8 (31:15):
You have a good night and a and a good weekend.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
You have a great weekend, Thanks Marie. Talk to you soon.
Speaker 8 (31:20):
Okay, good night, good night.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right, we're going to take a quick break here.
I got Christine, she's coming up. Alex and Richard and
I got a little room for a couple more if
you want six one, seven, ten thirty six seven honoring
and by the way, everyone so far has honored people
from World War Two. You may have a relative who
(31:44):
served more recently than that. Their service uh, whether it's
in Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever police feel free, this is your
opportunity to salute a family member, a friend, a member
of your community, a neighbor. We'll be back on Nightside.
By the way, our great friend Bill brett Uh is
(32:07):
working on a book which will be coming out next
Memorial Day about people from the the Greater Boston area,
New England who served in the military, and it's going
to be another one of his great coffee table books.
We'll talk with Bill about that at some point. Coming
right back on Nightside. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
nights Side Studios on DOMBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Okay, we get pack lines. I'm going to ask everybody
to just tighten it up, so we get everybody in.
Christine and Debtim your next Linezech, Christine, go right ahead.
Speaker 7 (32:41):
I wanted to remember my dad. He was in Korean
War really Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
He was, yeah, and he came home safe and sounds
and I hope Christine.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
He did.
Speaker 7 (33:02):
He came home taking time. But when he got off
one of the planes, he stepped on a land mine
and the piece of them, the landmine went up into
his eye. He lost his eye and he came home. Yeah,
he went to BU graduated from VU and then went
into the insurance business.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
With so many years.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's great. Yeah, and I hope he had a good
and a long life.
Speaker 7 (33:28):
He at the end he suffered. He had Alzheimer's in
Parkinson's disease for quite a number of years. He was very,
very sad.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
End that's a tough. But did he did he talk
much about his military service.
Speaker 7 (33:43):
He didn't like talking about time he brought up. He
got very sad. He wouldn't. He didn't like to talk
about it.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Okay, Well, yeah, he sacrificed greatly, that's for sure.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
So yeah, and my uncle was close. Got his brother
and now my nephew, my third oldest brother, his son,
William is in the army in Germany. Right now.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Well, that's that's great. So we honored a gentleman. What's
his first name, Christine?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Uh, my father, No, No, the.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
The your the nephew that's in Germany, William O'Brien. All right, Christine,
that's great. We got it all in. Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (34:26):
I sort of let you know if you're interested. The
Germans homes having better sing Monday morning at ninth already
my mother is at the German home.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Is that the one in West Roxbury? Yeah, yeah, no,
I know it well, I know it well, Okay, people
in West Roxbury and dead. I'm sure I've been there.
I had a friend of mine who spent a lot
of time there recuperating. Thank you, Christine, I.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Remember you telling me that, Okay, have a good weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
You have a great weekend. Thanks. Good night. Let me
go next to Alex and Millis. Alex, we're getting a
little late here. Who are you going to honor for
us tonight?
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Oh? My late dad. He just died. He just passed
away recently. He was ninety six. But he wasn't a
US veteran. He served overseas, uh, you know, with the
Nazis against the Nazis and UH and the forces of
Mussulin in Greece. And then my brother Frank, he's uh,
he's currently uh in the reserves, but he was in
(35:23):
the Air Force. UH served in Lackland.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So your dad served in the Greek military.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Yes, he escaped actually from Uh. He was at the
time right now with Albania. But and he met my
mom in in Greece. But he Uh, he had picked
up arms to defend defend his Uh town against the
Nazis in the atrocities that committee.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, that's your dad had to be a pretty courageous guy.
And he lived a long life till nineties. God bless him. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Self educated, and he was orphaned very young. But you
know they say, what doesn't what doesn't kill you, makes
you stronger. He was cool for that, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Alex. Thank you. I'm jamming everybody here in the I
still liah full and thank you so much. Great to
hear your voice. Talk to you soon. Where we're going
to go next, I'm going to Richard and the Hot Richard,
You're next to Night's. I'd got three behind you, Richard,
go right ahead.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
Yeah, okay. Honoring my father. He was born in nineteen
hundred and he was in the Navy when he was
like eighteen and World War One, whoa yeah, and after
that I was over not too much excitement in the
navy in World War One. He would joined the Merchant Marines,
and then after that he spent a lot of the
(36:48):
time in night school and he finally earned a Merchant
Marines chief Engineer's license.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Experience.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Yeah, yeah, So in nineteen forty two he joined the
Navy again and as a chief engineer on a destroyer
escort as a lieutenant commander, and he, uh, he got
torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea, but they shut all the
front of the barley. They took up torpedo in the barley,
(37:16):
shut all it all off, and they got back into
port but he got a lot of his ribs broken,
so they shipped them by a plane to a hospital
in Argentina, you know. And then after that, all of
a sudden we got a call fromhim. He was up
in Portland, Maine. I don't know how he got there, but
he was coming down to Boston. So we, uh we
(37:39):
went in town and met him for a while for
about five or six hours, and then he took a
train all the way out to California and he uh.
We got the chief engineer on a troop troop transport
thirty three five hundred men on it, and they were
getting ready for the invasion of Japan and then, of
(37:59):
course bombs were dropped in in Japan surrender, so then
he had to put the occupation on me into into Japan.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's it's amazing, what what what? What stories we've heard tonight,
and yours is one of them. Richard, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
I got I got one. Uh the Dorchester. My wife's
my wife's father. He died, he got torpedoed and killed
on the Dorchester, the one where the four chaplains gave
up there, gave up there like Jackets.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Okay, I'm not familiar with that story, but I got
three more folks. I got to get to Richard in
fairness to them. So thank you so much for tonight. Okay,
very much. You bet. Carol is an ever, Carol, you
got to be quick for me. I hate to do
the see, but you've called lake. Go ahead, Carol.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
Hi.
Speaker 9 (38:45):
I just wanted to honor my uncle Charlie. He fought
in the Battle of Normandy and right on the beach,
and he survived it, and he went back and he
visited decades later later, and uh, and his name is
carved in the wall, still in the bunk, because the
(39:06):
bunk is now the seller of a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Oh, that's a great story. That's a great story. I
hope you got to know him well as you were
growing up.
Speaker 9 (39:16):
Oh, I live next door to him.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Thanks so much, Thanks so much. I just got two more.
I'm going to try to thank you in here. Thank you, Carol.
We'll talk again. Okay, thanks very much. Good night. Let's
go to Richard Arlington. Rich I got you, and I
got one behind you got John and Drake. All right?
Speaker 10 (39:33):
Yeah, my father, John Butler fought in the Battle of
the Bulge in the tanks for General Patton. He was
a got injured and they got a purple Hot. He
was also received a Bronze Stop for rescuing his comrades
under machine gun fire. And also he was nominated for
(39:54):
the Silver Saw. And then the war ended, but he
he was when his tank blew up. He was hitting
out in a potato cella by some a young couple.
I've got a great picture of him sitting on the
tank with the young couple. After the war ended, and
he conversed with them and after the war, and so
(40:17):
I think of them all the time. And he died
of cancer at age sixty eight. But he survived the
Battle of the Bulge.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Thank you very much for that one quick thing, and
I got together okay, behind by thanks man John and Draco. John,
I got about thirty seconds for you. You're going to
be the last call of the night. Go ahead, all right.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
My father, US Coast Guard veteran Robert Deeker Joyce, loved
the military so much, loved this country. He passed away
in twenty nineteen on July fourth.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
How about that day. I have a couple of presidents.
I think I think that Adams also passed away on
July fourth. John, thank you, I'll bet he did. We
all do? We all do? Thanks, John, appreciate it so much.
To all the calls, I want to thanks very much.
I want to thank all of them very much. I
want to thank all of you for listening. I want
(41:13):
to thank Robin did a great job tonight. We had
a great week. Rob, welcome back. Thank you very much. Marita,
thank you very much. She's probably listening, but she did
a great job producing all week. It was a historic
week here on Nightside. Remember this week for a long time. Everybody.
My name's Dan Ray. I'll end us always. All dogs,
all cats, all pets go to heaven. That's what my
(41:33):
pal Charlie ray Is who passed fourteen years ago in February.
That's where all your pets are who were passed. They
loved you and you love them. I do believe you'll
see them again. Hope to see again on Monday night
here on night Side. You could listen to me on Facebook.
I'll be here in about two minutes. Thanks everybody, have
a great weekend. God bless
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