An old sailor

[Jak*]

Outside of my work this afternoon an old gentleman fell over on the pavement, we took him in and called for an ambulance as he had landed on his face and had several bad cuts. Whilst we were waiting he told us a bit about himself. Turns out he is 92 and had served on HMS Diadem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Diadem_(84) in the second world war. He had been at D-day and had been on the artic convoys. He joked that he was one of the few who had stayed warm as he was stoker.
In the end he was with us for about two hours until his son came and picked him up. We cancelled the ambulance in the end,to be fair we had told them it was not an emergency.
The whole time he was with us the gentleman chatted and maintained his good humour despite being in obvious pain, he belittled his own war experiences. As my colleague said, meeting him mad us feel humble. I guess there aren't many veterans of world war two left, we should remember to treasure them.
Cheers Jak

[rlkat]

Cheers, Jak. (thumbs)
My grandad was high up in the education department in Sheffield. It was only at his funeral that I learnt that he had gone over to Germany, after the war, to re-educate the Nazi Youth. I'd have loved to have talked to him about his experiences.

[Redmurty]

as the saying goes "when ships were wood and men were iron" as a stoker he may well of been warm but he would most likely never of gotten out of the ship should he needed to in an emergency, and certainly would of been in deep doo doo if his ship had been torpedo'd. He of course would of understood all this every watch he stood in the engine room.

(thumbs) good luck to the old boy

cheers Spud

[Tonibe63]

Thanks for posting Jak (thumbs) .
Sometmes we are so wrapped up in our lives/cars/jobs that we don't see the 'old folk' shuffling back to their homes never mind think about them.
My Wife has been very privileged during her career to nurse war veterans during their last year or so of Life, some have been within a local Latvian Community estate whilst others of many Nationalities have been within their own homes. Their Life stories are so humbling that it puts my moans about a shite day at work into perspective ...... sometimes we really don't know we are born .

[Whippet]

Thanks for this Jak, there are not many of these men left, I'm very fortunate to still have my Dad alive (and my Mother), my Dad is 92 and served on HMS Bayntun a (captain class frigate) and on HMS Nelson a Battleship. He tells me often of the escorting of the convoys off Iceland, he's my person hero (thumbs)

[Redmurty]

Thanks for this Jak, there are not many of these men left, I'm very fortunate to still have my Dad alive (and my Mother), my Dad is 92 and served on HMS Bayntun a (captain class frigate) and on HMS Nelson a Battleship. He tells me often of the escorting of the convoys off Iceland, he's my person hero (thumbs)

Buy him a "mug of KAI" for me he should remember those (thumbs)

just to jog his memory :whistle:

http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/s ... php?t=5736




Cheers Spud