Eugene Sledge post-war nightmares
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2010
- Eugene Sledge returns from fighting in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, however the horrors of war still haunt him.
From HBO's "The Pacific", episode 10 of 10.
I claim nothing in this video. It's simply for entertainment purposes. - Zábava
"Eugene your brother got all these things in europe. Did you get anything?"
"I got to come home"
And God damn, I think that's quite enough. 🙏
"nightmares..."
@CHAL KIE as a veteran Ive never liked being thanked just felt weird and I prefer no one thanked me but someone saying welcome home just seems better. Maybe it's just me but I think it's better.
@@wilhelmw9149 A veteran friend of mine once said the said the same thing. He said most vets understand that civilians want to acknowledge the sacrifices vets have made. They are more appreciative of being welcomed home. I was glad he explained that. Otherwise I wouldn't have known.
@@wilhelmw9149 thanking me makes me uncomfortable. I feel some of them say it because it’s “the thing” to do. I think welcome home is much better.
They interviewed the last living World War One ace (don't remember his name) in 1993. He was asked if he had nightmares after the war. He said, "yes". When was his last nightmare? "Last night"
Mutt Hoople That was Eddie Rickenbacker who was talking to Willie Driscoll, the backseater in a Navy F-4 who made ace along with Randy Cunningham.
+Mutt Hoople that's so damn sad.
Mutt Hoople my great grandfather served from 1915-1918 in the infantry. Made it to 90 years old. When he was in hospital dying he was got flash backs, crying and shouting " get out, for gods sake get out of there" Story goes he saw a childhood friend he joined up with in a pals battalion die in front of him and think it stuck with him to the end.
I recently learned that there are some really big issues now with German women who are nearing the end of their lives and who suffered tremendously at the end of the war. It is apparently quite common for them to recall rapes and the like even in late stage Alzheimer and Dementia.
Easy on the edge there Silas, your mommy might give you a spanking for it ya little shit.
I like that later on Eugene's mom and friends are all pressuring him to get a job, while he's still struggling with PTSD, and his Father is the only one who understands and tells them all to back off and give him time.
He's lucky to have a good father. Not all combat vets get that kind of support when they come home. I wonder how many tens of thousands of service members lives have been ruined because they didn't have the support they needed when they came home and they failed to adapt back to civilization. You probably see them on the streets sometimes asking for money.
@@joshuaortiz2031 Yeah. a lot of them become homeless because society don't understand the hell they went through and still going through in their heads.
Yes, I was taken aback by the mother's lack of understanding and empathy for her own son, who was clearly suffering and in need of support. Thankfully Eugene's Father was extraordinarily human with him.
@@joshuaortiz2031 My Stepfather told me he hoped I would die in Iraq.
@@HellsYeah8 damn. I would have popped one in his kneecaps
Eugene's Father standing there outside his son's door is heartwrenching. He witnessed the aftermath of war on the soldiers of WW1 and is still haunted by that, and now he has to see the same thing torment his own son.
I really liked the aspect of his parents they put in the series. These parts with his Dad are really good.
My dad was the same way when I first got back. He went to korea and vietnam, he understood the struggles I have. I took comfort in that.
@@joshuahowe9417 i like how understanding his dad was at a time when PTSD was pushed under the rug
@@willwolf8436 God bless your father for helping defend my countries freedom. Respect from a fellow South Korean.
If you read sledges book hw accredited his father for keeping him sane after the war.
Have to think that's why Snafu never woke up Sledge on the train.
Derek Testorff wow I never thought of that! Thanks for pointing that out.
That scene is also heartbreaking even without any words spoken. Imagine you decide to leave your friend, don't want to wake him up, so that he can get a peaceful sleep for a moment.
Actually, Snafu had enough points to go back almost immediately after WW2 ended . This scene on the train with Snafu , never happened. Sledge was sent to China after WW2 , by the time he came back home(1946), almost every combatant in WW2 had already reached back home . By that time , the country had started to move on from the war , this scene depicts that , the European Theatre soldier showing off his Swastika flag , he had begun to move on as well. Which is why , it would have been much more difficult for a man like Sledge , to be in the worst battles in WW2 ( especially Pelileu) and come back home to a place that's mostly moved on from his horrible war.
Sam Jones what are points in ww2?
@@randomguywithmemes.1987 Band of Brothers went over the point system a little bit, highly recommended series if you can watch it. How the points worked: During WW2, over the course of your service you were awarded points that determined whether you were eligible to go home at war's end, or if you had to continue serving while your unit occupied Germany/Japan/territories that were previously held by the Axis powers. You needed 85 points to go home, and soldiers were given a point for a month of service, an additional point if that service was overseas, certain decorations/medals counted as 5 points, having children meant more points, etc...
In WWII germans designed "whistler bombs" so people panicked when they heared the whistle because they knew a bomb was about to blast. Years later, my grandfather still woke up in the middle of the night hearing that whistle in his nightmares.
Must've been a scary sound if you can still here it 70+ years later...
+metz ergenstein I heard a story that took place years after WWII that his wife told. When they were in their trenches they took shifts sleeping and standing guard. They couldn't make any noise though so to wake sledge up Snafu would whisper "Sledgehammer" into his ear to wake him. So back to years after WWII, Sledge was sleeping in his living room chair one day and his wife comes up and whispers "Sledgehammer" into his ear to see what would happen and he awoke fully without making a noise.
+Cster Seventeen That's kind of cruel though - if the effect is strong enough to make him wake up, he might have thought for a second he's back in the Pacific.
+AGH331 Yeah I bet she didn't mean to
wait how would she know about that though? Snafu never spoke with Eugene after they left until like 30+ years after when Sledge released his book.
Seeing his father look into his son's door breaks my heart. He is a man who loves his boy. And his boy is forever broken.
My son is just about to Join the Royal Marines. This hits home.
Good luck to your son, I hope he stays safe and comes home often.
worse than that, his father served as a surgeon during the first world war, he knows all too well, the horrors and terrors of mankind that haunt dreams, both his own, and now his son's as well
“The worst part about treating those combat boys from the Great War wasn't that they'd had their flesh torn - it was that they had had their souls torn out. I couldn't bear to look into your eyes one day and see no love there no spark no... no life. That would break my heart.”
Sledgehammer’s book, “With the old breed” is a must read.
I haven't seen the series, so maybe it was mentioned in it, but I saw an interview with Mrs. Sledge and she said "When he was sleeping, you didn't touch him. If you wanted to wake him, you said his name and he was awake instantly. But you just didn't touch him."
I know a guy who’s uncle fought in Korea, as a Marine and his wife always slept in the spare bed after he went to sleep because sometimes he dreamed about the hand to hand fighting and he had her by the throat one night before he woke up
My dad has to tell my mom that about me. I almost hit her after she woke me from my sleep once. She still has a hard time understanding that. War changes a man.
My poor mom woke me up by shaking my shoulder. Once. After that, she didn't touch me but instead spoke very softly and called me by my infant nickname. It worked for both of us. :(
One does not simply wake up a battle hardened war veteran.
I am not a combat vet but people touching me when I’m sleeping I’m about to start swinging. Only say my name and I’m up
What an amazing father. Literally stood outside his sons door, in case he needed him. That's a true father right there.
That is not why the father stood there. He stood there because he wanted with everything in him to take away his sons suffering but he knew he could not.
Not only how they portrayed the PTSD that this lad had underwent but, it breaks my heart to see how it must be for a father and mother to see their child mentally distraught and broken from the realities of war and completely inept to feel safe in his own bed... that is extremely saddening.
Especially during a time in history where any form of treatment for PTSD was virtually non-existent because of the fact that it was unheard of. Vets had no alternative other than to just deal with it on their own terms. My Great Grandfather went undiagnosed as a result. There were some days where he was more angry than usual and others when he was deeply depressed. I find solace in the fact that he spent the last years of his life enjoying life as Great Grand Parent. I never knew that this side of him existed until after his death!
PKP405 Heavy, I'm so sorry to hear that about your grandfather. It's good to know that you find comfort in the fact he got to be a grandparent while undergoing such an issue. All the best my friend to you and your family!
At least his parents did love him very much, and he did have a safe bed to return to. Even with that, it's hard to imagine a recovery, but I think it's because of that that he was able to live a life afterwards. That's what I struggle with, but I know it wasn't as bad for us as it was for them.
PKP405 My grandfather was the same way. He never spoke of his experiences during the war. He was a very angry person and would sometimes sink into a deep depression. When that happened he would simply claim to be sick. He had a lot of guilt issues as well. I never understood why he was the way he was until I served in the Marines. He passed away in 2009 and in his last years he started letting some of it out. My mother took care of him the last 10 years of his life. One day, on the anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, she came in and saw him watching a show about it. He was crying. She asked him why and he told her that he was there and had lost so many friends on that beach. When someone is traumatized like that, it can last a lifetime. My only hope now is that he is finally at peace.
Well he did feel safe in his bed regardless of having a nightmare. Probably how he could even get some sleep.
Over 70 years and I still hear my grandpa in the middle of the night
Where did he serve??
Alex Navarro he was in Navy in the pacific on a destroyer escort USS Samuel S Miles
WyoNord You should take your grandpa out buddy. Where there are laughs.. jokes.. friendly people... And peace.
I'm so sorry to hear that no one at that age should be getting that
Jonathan Allen no one at any age should be going through it.
Eugene Sledge's story is so heartbreaking. He went through hell, like most Marine's but his story is gripping, he went from a nice, honest and polite 18 year old to a emotionally scared broken man at the end of the war. The Japanese must have been relentless. I respect people like Eugene so much, i hope no one has to go through that experience. Rest in peace Sledgehammer.
He went to war as a boy and returned home as a man.
He went through hell. Even one marine said
"You dont know the true horrors of war until you fight the japanese"
only the dead see the end of the war
I forget who said that quote but whoever did was very much true
Maybe.
That’s deep
I know this is 4 years old, but it's not a Plato quote. Blackhawk Down screwed that up.
Plato.
The worst PTSD I ever dealt with was a squad leader of mine who was in the Corps in Nam. One of the most humblest sweetest men you would ever know. Yet at night he went straight back to hell. It was horrific the events he would relive. He told me he never had any problems with it till about 20 years after he returned.
The worst part about treating those combat boys from the Great War wasn't that they'd had their flesh torn - it was that they had had their souls torn out. I couldn't bear to look into your eyes one day and see no love there no spark no... no life. That would break my heart.
Justin Owens didn’t his dad tell him that
@@Snipercosolo yes. Which makes this scene all the more heartbreaking because his dad sees the same horror affect his own son.
@@Snipercosolo yes, he did, on the series the scene appears in episode 2 shortly after Eugene tells him he decided to join the USMC
The worst part, you wish they were dead. Because sometimes its better for anyone to stop suffering, just like in WW1. Most of the war horses suffered from stress disorder due to how anxious and irritated they used to be hearing those shellings and bombs along with gun shots.
Those words and that scene just brings tears every time I watch it
i worked in a retirementhome in cuxhaven/germany. there was this one old man. i never forget this. he suffered by alzheimer. every morning at 05:30 he came out of his room and stardet to cry. he said that his best friend was shot last night. he dreamed it every night and then he forget that it was only a dream. he was in the wehrmacht. i feel so sorry for all those men and woman who have to suffer on this kind of horror.
And yet we have these heartless politicians who plants creed in the heart of the youth so the could harvest money out of them.
Poor guy, many people demonize the German military during wwii and yes there were bad ones, but a majority of those men were just like everyone else. Tired.
My grandfather served in WW2 and for the longest time i always thought the Germans and Japanese were evil until I read a book by accident called Sniper on the Eastern Front. Made me change my whole perspective on MEN in the military
@@srbeef6683 all soldiers are brothers who only got divided by kings and leaders.
My great uncle would get up and "look for the body" he also suffered from alzheimers. I heard this from my great aunt. He was a dday (Juno beach) veteran and passed away last year.
“Those unharmed by bullets and shrapnel were nevertheless casualties.”
Great quote. I know Ambrose said it but almost wonder if someone said it before he did
Just finished reading this brave mans book and his nightmares never left him the poor soul, all i can say is thank you for your service and thank you for the freedom i now have and my children have that you and your mates made sure of , good night and god bless from England .
+Stuart Unsworth Same here. Every time I watch WW II series I am so thankful these brave people risked and gave their lives so today I, a German, can live in a democratic country rather than a dictatorship, and my mentally disabled brother can live and have fun rather than being gassed for being considered "life unworthy of life".
After reading your post I went to Amazon and ordered the book ( about 5 min ago ) The Kendal version is $8 ,I got a used paper back for $4 .
Good luck to you and your family, sir.
I just bought it, how's the book?
just because PTSD wasnt discovered doesnt mean it wasnt there
PTSD didn't have a name but it was always there, it was just taboo to talk about it. After every war we have this Back to Normal mentality, we believe that Veterans just get over it once the war is over or a fancy house in the suburbs can replace friends lost in battle. Back then if you were suffering from PTSD, Shell Shock or what ever they wanted to call it and spoke out about it you were called a coward.
You remember the film to Hell and Back with Audie Murphy his book wasn't just about the war and all the medals he won it was also about his struggles with PTSD and how that affected his life after the war. But when they made the movie all refrences to PTSD were removed to glorify Audie's well deserved bravery in battle and to show that he came back from the war unscathed mentally
It is not more easy to avoid these disease or mental disease by simply not doing such an unnatural thing like fighting in a war and killing other human beings just like you?. Don´t get me wrong sometimes fighting is inevitable but fighting imperialistic wars like first world war or second world war or fighting wars only to achieve rich men objectives it is not a waste of time? what do these veterans win with the war? nothing but a full life of nightmares or traumatic disorders. They suffer in silence so what is the point? i respect when the people fights for freedom or for the liberation of his own country but in general the wars are made and design for rich assholes that dont ever fight in anywar and the sons of this assholes goes to Harvard or Yale. You see my point? i will not answer any insult or disrespect comment. Good day.
It was discovered it was simply referred to as shellshock
At the time, during and after WWII, it was called Battle Fatigue. During and after WWI it was called Shell Shock. Now it's called Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Ariel Goldfarb They had no choice, WWII, the korean war and vietnam war were draft wars
Only the ones who have been there know what it is to have a nightmare like this. RESPECT to them. Strength and Honor!
That's the saddest scene. Mom and Dad exchange silent looks and both know there's absolutely nothing they can do to make it better.
Amen....
His dad sitting down: You've done your part Son, I have the watch.
My Mommom (Mom's mom) had 5 uncles that served in WW2. On her dad's side there was Bob, and Henry. And on her mother's side there was Freddy, Bill, and Bernard. Bob was drafted to fight in Europe while Henry was serving in the Navy. Henry took a piece of shrapnel to his head and had to have a metal plate put in to replace the chunk of skull he lost. Bill was in the 66th Infantry Division and fought in Normandy. Bernard was a sergeant in a tank destroyer battalion in Europe. And Freddy was serving before the Nazi's even invaded Poland, he was a staff sergeant in the Big Red One and fought in every engagement from North Africa to Czechoslovakia. All but Henry had drinking problems after the war. They were so poor that they had to live in the same house together, and my Mommom along with her two brothers lived with them. Freddy was so mentally wrecked from the war, he didn't get married until he was in his late 40s. He died in his mid-50s from cirrhosis as a result of his alcoholism. There's no glory in war, you go off and fight in some foreign country only to come home to nothing but a stab in the back from the government and nightmares of the hell they went through. Just remember, these people went through a hell that the average American citizen can't even imagine, and they need time to piece their lives together after seeing the things they saw. They don't just forget about war the minute they get home, it's on their minds constantly and they have a war on the inside. An internal war that could last a lifetime.
Alex Knudson My grandfather fought in WWII. I'm not sure what outfit he was with, he never spoke to me about his experiences. I do know that he had nightmares every night. He would wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep, so he would go to the kitchen and have a snack and smoke a cigarette. My grandmother told me that he was with one of the units that liberated the concentration camps at the end of the war. He had fought from North Africa all the way up through Italy and Europe. My grandmother said that he would often have nightmares relating to the concentration camps.
Louis Criscione WWII was a very brutal war. Mankind had never seen such attrocities prior to the war. The Nazis perpetrated their evil on Europe and the Japanese committed unspeakable horrors all over Asia. Americans were naive at the time, and the young men who went to war with so much fanfare had no idea what they were walking in to. War itself is full of horrors, but it's even worse when governments commit such attrocities on innocent civilians.
That’s called a grandma buddy
@@ohasis8331 ---In 2020 I went to the V.A. in Riviera Beach, Fl.. I was talking to a nurse there and told her I never wanted my kids in the military as only the U.S. sends its young to fight wars it has no intention of winning, to nation build or to try to bring to democracy to countries and peoples who do not want it. Also, I said I was tired of being rejected for submitted claims as 'there was no proof' what I said had actually happened. I stated one did not run to the infirmary everytime something happened. You just gutted up and carried on. I stated I was tired of essentially being called a liar. Well this nurse immediately broke down and started crying. She said the Viet Nam vets have been treated like sh!t and that in the V.A. system it was still happening.
@@WACATX767882 ... James, I made the nearly fatal mistake of asking the despicable VA for help in the summer of 2008. It was one of the very worst decisions I made in my entire life. I now believe it was only by Divine Intervention that I barely survived what I was subjected to by the self-serving, criminally-corrupt, veteran-abusing, unaccountable, union-hack bureaucrats that infest the V.A. I was severely retraumatized by that experience and had to go completely cold-turkey on anything V.A. related in order to survive. ... I went a couple years without any medical care or medications, until I aged into Medicare eligibility. It now costs me about $4000/year to be on Medicare, and to have medigap insurance and prescription drug coverage insurance. There are also additional deductibles and copays, should I need to use any of that coverage. All of that was free to me from the fundamentally evil V.A. ... I regard it as a small price to pay to have the veteran-abusing bastards in the V.A. in my rear view mirror. I'll never give the V.A. another opportunity to kill me. ... ... My father enlisted into the U.S. Navy after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a Machinists Mate on the U.S. Maumee, a fleet oiler. After the war, when I was very young, I remember him being in civilian hospitals several times with kidney stones. I don't believe he ever used V.A. "healthcare" for anything. Late in his life, he was afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease. When Mom could no longer care for him at home, she had to resort to putting him into the V.A. Hospital at Perry Point, Maryland. ... V.A. goons working on his ward were repeatedly physically abusing him there. Dad was non-verbal at the time. ... U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, [D-MD] met my Mother at VAMC Perry Point, MD. She personally rolled Dad in a wheelchair out of that V.A. Hell hole. ... ... The most despicable people I've met in my entire life were V.A. career bureaucrat employees. ... I was drafted into U.S. Army Infantry and served a tour of duty in Vietnam as an infantry NCO in infantry platoons in the Big Red One in III Corps, 68-69. Brave young men died in my arms there. ... I never hated the NVA or the Viet Cong. They earned my respect. I never hated anyone in my life, until I became involved with the V.A. It was Veterans Administration Deathcare that taught me to hate.
This is exactly what his father was afraid of, why he didn't want Eugene to go. What a scene.
Sledge wanted to serve his country and he paid dearly for that service. May God bless him.
I served in Eugene Sledges company 3/5 Kilo 1st Platoon (Sledge was with Weapons) USMC In honor of this Marine, our company's call sign is "Sledgehammer" if you are interested and want to know where Sledge's battalion has gone. I'll list. Frozen Chosen (Korea) Battle of Hue (Vietnam) OIF I (Baghdad, Habbiniya, Operation Phantom Fury (Fallujah) and Fallujah for a 2nd tour) Sangin Helmand (Afghanistan) This Battalion remembers the fallen like all others. RIP Sledge your company is holdin the line
In 1990 I was a Quartermaster aboard the USS Barbour County deploying to Operation Desert Shield/Storm. The Marine Unit we transported was Kilo 3/5. I had just finished reading With the Old Breed. It was an honor to transport them.
Yep, my Dad had nightmares when he got home from serving in Patton's Third Army. My Grandmother tried to wake him up once during a particularly bad dream. She went over to him and tried to shake him awake, you know, the typical shove you might give your child when they have a nightmare. That didn't work out to well for my Grandmother because my Dad grabbed her and threw her against the wall. My uncle was in my Dad's room as well and said that she literally hit the wall horizontally, the throw was that hard. After that, whenever my Dad had a nightmare, my Grandmother or Grandfather would poke him with a broom and let him grab that and smack the wall with it. Pretty crazy but the stuff my Dad went through and witnessed during the war, from the Battle of the Bulge to liberating the Buchenwald concentration camp, is something no one should have gone through, let alone a nineteen year old kid...
I couldn't imagine being sledge's father. He didn't want him to go to war because he had seen the eyes of WW1 vets. He knew if sledge survived he would have the exact same look. Since im assuming Peleliu and Okinawa were 100 times worse than in the show, i couldn't imagine having to deal with seeing those images the rest of my life
from what I understand it was like Vietnam with less close-air support and more flamethrowers.
If you want a taste of the carnage at Peleliu or Okinawa go read Mr. Sledges Book. They show didn't portrayed it enough (that's not a complain, the show is great)
@@qwopiretyu vietnam was nothing against the pacific war
in vietnam you went on allot of patrols where nothing would happen or oyu sat on oyur fire base on guard duty
in the pacific ou were constantly on the move there was shitty logistics you were allways wet and dirty, the men stank like pigs and the sour sweet smell oof dead corpes rotting over the islands wouldnt even leave them alone while sleeping
@@HansFlamme The book shows how horrible it really is althought the show did a decent enough job. Some of it is too vile to even be on tv. The words alone are enough.
@@HansFlammeI ended up getting the book and it was definitely worse than what the show portrayed
"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded, who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." -William T. Sherman, Union General in the U.S. Civil War.
Most powerful scene no farther should see his son suffering in this way.
"My father saw himself as a simple scientist, who had endured something unspeakable "
In case any one wondered his nightmare, it was a dead Marine's rotting corpse that had a wicked smile on it, Genes' hole was up an elevation looking down into the water filled shell hole the Marine was in, maggots crawling all over him eating his remains, in his nightmares Sledge would find himself back in that place staring at that same corpse who would mock
Sledge's foolishness at thinking he could ever leave Okinawa alive, the corpse would become him to either join him, or that he would die there.
His other nightmare was the day before they were sent south to releave the army unit that was being demolished by Japanese shell fire, he dreaded the thought of going back "into the abyss " as he called it.
We know this because he wrote it, while he had other nightmares I'm sure, those haunted him the worst and longest.
I’ve had nightmares after OEF. Shits fucking crazy bro
@@TheInfantry98 hope you're doing well brother.
I broke down and cried so hard more than any other episode. Seeing the scars that soldiers come home with. From his nightmares to his break down in the woods. I cried the whole time.
Friend of my father was a marine who landed on the third wave on Iwo Jima. The year before he passed away he honoured me by telling me of some of his experiences which he never even told his wife about. The one thing I remember the most was one day when he got a far away look on his face and said ' I don't know why I'm alive and so many of my buddies are dead".
“He honored me…”. You are a class act sir.
No Marine is “basic”. Each is a warrior not a soldier. We don’t need “special” Marines. They are all elite. Not meant in any way as criticism just perspective.
Wow, I only experienced peacetime in the Marines in the 80s, there was no war, nothing happened in the whole 4 years I was in, and I had dreams for years after that about being in the Corps. I cannot even begin to possibly imagine what it would have been like if I actually saw combat.
I admire all those guys on both sides, the Americans, Russians, Brits, Germans, Japanese, and so on. Stronger men than I could ever be.
My worst dream, and I had this for years, was being dragged back to bootcamp and having to serve 4 years again.
I've had dreams like that for years after my first deployment. I would find myself back in the middle east and then wake up with a sigh of relief when I realize it was only in my head.
@@joshuaortiz2031 I have very bad dreams after coming home from OEF and I have bad dreams bout losing my M4A1 rifle
You and me both brother. I served with the 25th ID 1982-1985. Didn't see combat, but a lot of misery. I still have dreams riding on a Huey through the Kahukus flying NOE.
@@TheInfantry98 yeah because you know your shit is hanging in the breeze if you lose your weapon.😁. That is a nightmare!!!
🎉
My grandfather fought in Stalingrad, captured twice by the Soviets, and escaped twice. Never spoke a word about the war to his family. My oldest aunt used to serve him and his friends coffee and wine and would overhear them talking. That was the only way we knew what happened.
What did your grandpa say then?
@@svidentkyrponos7530 probably that it was horrible..?
@@wcc4269
Maybe
@@svidentkyrponos7530 things even if you knew you wouldnt understand .....Heck i wouldnt understand the sheere brutality on the eastern Front
Your grandfather fought to free Europe from Communist butchery/slavery and the reward he got for it was to be labelled a murderer by those that perfected that practice on the civilians of Germany, France, Italy and Japan.
I really can't imagine the toughness needed to have been a German in WW2 and lived on after 1945 and seeing the world that was great and going to be even better turn into decadent second jewish weimar republic.
My father was a decorated WWII combat vet from the European theater who fought the Nazi's I was born over 20 years after WWII ended as I grew up I noticed my father at times stuttered in his speech I thought it was just part of him. Until one day at my uncles farm (my dads older brother) also a WWII combat vet and after My dad had a noticeable episode of stuttering I asked my Uncle Pete why didn't he studder like my dad.
My uncle replied "because I wasn't shelled by Artillery, German rocket Artillery nicked named " Screaming- memes" and mortars countless times like you dad had been"
I now understand why my dad at times studdered when he spoke.
My mom also told me my dad and her got married with two months of him returning home from the war but for over a year they didn't sleep in the same bed because of his nightmares she quickly learned not to ask about the names of the men my father would shout out yelling for them to take cover or why my dad who never got badly wounded cried medic so much. My dad never even spoke of the war with my mom
It wasn't until almost 40 years after the war my dad told me a few things mostly funny things that happened but also some tragic things as well. I just could never imagine what horrable horrible memories that lived forever in his mind forever.
My great uncle served in the WWII, KOREA and again in Vietnam. WWII wasn't so bad as he'd only caught the end of it. Vietnam he was there early on but in Korea he caught hell. I remember him waking me up screaming on more than one occasion. I was just a kid and naturally it scared the wits outta me. Jr felt so bad about this cause he'd scared me. Today I feel horrible I ever got upset, I know I didn't know but I still see the pain in his face and can't make it better for him. He was a great man. The family wasn't the same without him.
Thank him for his service and may he rest in peace
A father's love is like no other
They won the war, but the war still rages on inside their heads.
Only the dead see the end of a war.
What is the point of "winning" if You are going to live the rest of your life traumatized and broken. The politicians won the war not the vets.
Yeah, with that generation it was just something they didnt talk about. MY grandpa was a fighter pilot in the british royal airforce in ww2 . He still had bad dreams a few times a week up untill he died a few yrs back when he was in his early 90's. He said could always still see the faces of all the pilots he shot down over the English channel and Europe.
same thing happened with my grandfather in the Korean war always having nightmares and seeing his fallen mates and the men he killed in battle
that's because these days we have Professional armies they are better trained to handle this stuff and you go through strict psychological testing before hand to see if you could cope
except for America they just let anyone in who wants in...
indeed And do they teach you how to control your subconscious?
indeed That's bullshit.
PTSD is very real, and soldiers no matter how well they are trained are not immune to it.
The Australian Army has very high recruitment standards, and the soldiers undergo ongoing rigorous and comprehensive training.
But many of our recent combat vets have returned home from their tours in Afghanistan with PTSD.
AUSSIEDAVEROCKS I agree with you 100% about PTSD, I knew a Sgt., whose one of my best friends now, while I was in Korea and he was sent to iraq multiple times. While at training at a camp over in korea there were tanks doing fire exercises near by and every time a round was shot he just jerked and started beathing fast. Me or anyone else with him always have to help him through it.
I feel bad for sledge he wanted to serve his country and he did but he just couldn't get it out of his mind nobody can so nobody understands what these brave heroes go through and really it breaks my heart to see this cause it is heart wrenching to watch and hear people talk about it so thank you marines for serving the country just hang in there it'll be over before you know it you all will be home so thank you so much for everything god bless you and america
Every day I wake I'm grateful for there sacrifices.
My dad served as a member of an artillery scout team in the Pacific. Even into my teen years, I heard him screaming or yelling because of the nightmares. He never talked with me about what he endured. The only thing that he said was that they always knew that the Japanese were looking for them, that they were young, and that they were always scared. Dad was a great example of leadership for me.
My mother was a 10yr old girl in Liverpool, that was bombed every night. And my whole life when we would go to see the fireworks on the 4th (she came to the US in 1954) she would stay home & hide in her bedroom & cry.
After those kinds of experiences, I doubt the nightmares ever stop.
Freedom isn't free.
You leave the battlefield, but the battlefield never leaves you
As a father and grandpa to active duty servicemen. this scene absolutely breaks my heart
My great grandfather spent 5 years as a POW to the Germans after his ship was sank at Crete. They tread water for 12 hours. He spent time at a mental institution. Today they would call it post traumatic stress disorder. RIP Jack. We remember you every ANZAC day. Lest we forget
Crazy how my views on war have changed since becoming a father.. the though of my son going through something so terrible just breaks my heart.
My dad was a career soldier in the army for 20 yrs and was in Iraq for Dec '05 to Jan '07 and when he got home after a rough deployment his company commander was killed on the last patrol they had to do 2 days before leaving for home and my dad has had a few PTSD episode and he drank just to fall asleep. And after everything he went through still told me I should join the military when I turned 18. But he's also a professional soldier and in his mind everything he experienced was just part of the job
As a father I have found that when my boy hurts it hurts me that I can't make it go away for him...
Very powerful scene I went through that exact same thing when my tour was over in 2012 I had served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003-20012 I think GOD everyday I survived but I lost a lot of great friend during my time over there sometime I ask God how come I came home and so many of my friends didn't I loved those guys but I'll never forget them they are apart of me and that's why I live every day with a Lust for life because that's what they would have done so I live for them
Thanks for your service---and welcome home, always.
Jay 3 forthree84 You're a pussy. Try being the last man standing on call of duty in a search & destroy mission.
Don't thank god thank the marines that had your back every step of the way
"The worst part about treating those combat boys from the Great War wasn't that they'd had their flesh torn - it was that they had had their souls torn out."
That scene makes me cry all the time. I havnt been through anything as nightmarish as this man had to live through but i do struggle with nightmares. My father would often spend time outside my bedroom door, praying for me as he would hear me moan and cry as i tried to sleep. It is good to have someone like that in your life who cares.
I served in an army Dustoff unit in Vietnam (battlefield aero medical evacuation) I saw every manner of death possible. I still have nightmares.
I thank you for your service. Over half of my family put on the uniform. My late uncle served in WWII, lost an eye in combat. Another one of my uncles his brother saw him his basement having a borderline break
The beauty in this is his dad was in the heat war, he was a doctor in WW1 and endured the same situations, sights and carnage Sledge saw, that’s why this scene is so deep, because his father understands his pain.
to me, this is the best and most emotional scene of this phenomenal series
The nightmares never really go away.
Just for anyone who may ask why he doesn't go in and wake him up, believe me as someone who has had these types of nightmares (not a vet, no PTSD, but still had my demons show themselves) waking a person up in the middle of these "attacks" can be dangerous for people. The person asleep may not always know that they are being woken, and may attack the person trying to help.
The scenes from this film almost always bring me to tears
First part is very related too.
Many war veterans come back home wondering why civilians make a big deal out of stuff like how beautiful that dress is because in the military, you don't care about how nice your uniform/gear looks, you put it on because you don't have a choice. The ending of The Hurt Locker is actually very similar too with the grocery shopping.
This just made me shed a tear
I can only imagine the emotional pain of losing your best friends and then having it play over in your head. I would cry if I had to relive that over and over :(
I had a staff sergeant when I was in the army infantry that would holler and scream every night and most the boys would get annoyed because he’d keep them up. But lord knows we didn’t want to know what happened to that poor man that made him scream in such a way it sounded like flesh was being torn from his body...
It's definitely one of the most heartbreaking things for me to see. The struggles and sacrifices of my fellow veterans and their families.
Can relate to this. As a career military guy who started with Vietnam and ended after Desert Storm. My house is in the the landing area pattern for local hospital "life flight" and every time I hear the chopper I think "Loach". Vietnam vets know what that was.
I just got teary eye right now, just cause some of my brothers are still going through this.
I had an uncle who was at the Ardennes offensive (The Battle the the Bulge) being a medic, he had the worst nightmares all his life.
A short scene, but one of the most powerful scenes.
A truly heartbreaking scene. You may come home, but a war can haunt you for the rest of your life.
I keep coming back to this scene
This reminds me of my late uncle served in the army in WWII. In Patton's third army nonetheless. Lost an eye in combat. When I was kid like 8 or 10 I tried to get him tell stories, he would not hardly. Several years later I was told He had severe PTSD. He had a breakdown in his basement. Another one of my uncles talked him down.
He was always there for him even when he didn’t know it.
A very powerful scene. His dad was their for him because only he knew. Sledge would never tell, and his dad knew.
Ten years after the fact I still have weekly nightmares about missing my science final. I can't imagine how bad my dreams would be if I spent four years witnessing death rather than four years of high school lectures.
He's fortunate he had such a nice home and family to go back to.
He had seen and done too much killing and he wasn’t alone with the PTSD. A man in my church his dad was a corpsman at D-Day and wouldn’t talk about the war. I can only imagine the carnage he witnessed treating the wounded.
There was a Japanese katana in my grandfathers room and he refused to tell me or anyone else how he got it. Now that he is gone my grandmother told us about how he had nightmares and we will never know how he got it. Some things are better left untold... that was a very nasty war
he bought it at a pawn shop
Sledges dad knew it could happen. He told sledge before he enlisted..."the worst thing about the boys coming back home from the great war was not that they had their flesh torn...it was that they had their souls torn out."
All soldiers from war suffered from this !! My 2 Uncles fought in the South Pacific. My Aunts were constantly listening to my Uncles agony reliving their horrors 😢
I still remember coming home and living with my parents for about year. Very surreal
It's sad that pretty much all of our grandfathers most likely had to deal with the same type of thing.
hardly, only around 8 million saw any kind of combat and the usa had a pop of 130 million
my grampa served in world war 2 as well. he was in a two story building and a mortar hit in the building and blew him down a stair case, he got a broken nose and a few other small injuries but his nose got infected from a creek they had to cross, so they shipped him out of the war. THANK YOU EVERYBODY WHO HAS FOUGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY
I remember coming back from my 5th. and last Deployment, my dad hugh me and said: "the real battle starts now men, I'm here for you..."
4 years since that and I'm still struggling...
0:27 it almost sounds like he says “Snaf no”
The trauma of war is awful, just as much for the loved ones as it is for the Veteran, because they are helpless to help them during their nightmares. Myself in Iraq and Afghanistan, my brother in the Gulf War, our father in the Vietnam War, and our Uncles in World War II. God bless our Veterans and their families. Semper Fi!
as a man I think who has been through war and combat.. war doesn't end there it keeps on haunting you in peacetime...
The loss of humanity that these young men suffered from, it's just terrible. It's like watching a serious drama such as Breaking Bad or Walking Dead, only you have to remember, it's real life. This is still going on today.
AMAZING ost work as usual!
Sadly........my father did this same thing for me. I never new til my mother told me before she passed.
This scene always makes me tear up.
The post war scenes always touched me
Bless all who have entered the Night. Even with Dawn, shadows remain a part of every day.
This was a pretty good series. I purchased it along with Band of Brothers....double pack DVD with interviews from the real Veterans. Cost me $34.99 at Walmart. Don't know if I'll ever watch it again....the first time was hard enough....violent and graphic, but I'll pass it, along with my war movie DVD collection, to my kids so they understand the horrors of war.
Aw, sledgehammer in his jim-jams.
Seriously though, I loved this little moment. I really liked Dr Sledge - I wish there could have been another whole episode just about the Sledge family...
My grandpa served in WW2. My uncle bought him the movie Saving Private Ryan. My grandpa couldnt watch it. He says (I'm 20) that what WW2 really was was boys 18-25 going to Europe and getting their brains blown out. Really chilling to me I think.
Man this scene made me burst into tears…
Pop knows where hes been and where he is.
Watching this episode always made me cry my eyes out
This part really stuck with me. Awful stuff
The saddest part of this scene is the look of helplessness on Eugene's father's face. Heartbreaking.