A friend of mine,E.Herod,who volunteers at our local Hospital delivering mail to the patients,has over a period of time,shared a bit of his experience from WW2 with me.
He is a man of few words about WW2,but doesn't seem that bothered when I ask him questions about it,but he did say he was fortunate to be mostly out of harms way.He traveled by what ever means it took,and fixed the electronics in the tanks for the radio communications.When he found out that I smoke a pipe at home,he said that he used to smoke a pipe.
I asked him what pipe he used to smoke,he said "oh,nothing special".
I asked him how often he would smoke it,and his reply kind of took me by surprise.
He said he always carried two pipes,and while the one pipe was cooling down,he would smoke the other one.
E.Herod was told he should have died twelve years ago.He had open heart surgery twenty years ago and had a pig valve installed and they said he would only have 8 or 9 years to live.He is still here because he is really careful about what he eats and pushes himself to do regular exercises.He has put two wives in the ground,unfortunately.I went to one of his wife's(Perl)grave site with him a couple of weeks ago.
I asked him if he ever caught a bullet.He said occasionally he would hear a bullet or two hit the tank that he was working on inside.
I asked him what it was like to live on the rations he was given to travel with.He said he had certain cans of meat that he would trade 3 or 4 of them to someone else for only one can of a different kind.
This led to the experience he had with two other men and a pig that I thought was funny.
He ended up somehow at a farm house with two other men(he told me why,but I forget now).There was a pig running around the deserted farm,and they killed it and prepared it for roasting.I asked him if he was the one that gutted and cleaned the pig.He said that one of the guys there was a butcher(how convenient),I laughed at the odds of that.By now I was starting to wonder if he was still really in the War.But he was.
They made a make shift rotisserie and speared it through the pig and started roasting it over an open fire.Each man would have to take turns running out to turn the pig rotisserie very quickly over the hot coals.Each man had to be very quick because the enemy would shoot from a distance toward the smoke from the coals.
No one got hit with a bullet and they eventually ate the pig.
From what I gather,I am the only one that was ever told first about this pig story because I found out later that his own son did not know this,and the son looks to be about 50 years old.
If anyone has any questions they would like to ask him about WW2,just let me know.
He is a man of few words about WW2,but doesn't seem that bothered when I ask him questions about it,but he did say he was fortunate to be mostly out of harms way.He traveled by what ever means it took,and fixed the electronics in the tanks for the radio communications.When he found out that I smoke a pipe at home,he said that he used to smoke a pipe.
I asked him what pipe he used to smoke,he said "oh,nothing special".
I asked him how often he would smoke it,and his reply kind of took me by surprise.
He said he always carried two pipes,and while the one pipe was cooling down,he would smoke the other one.
E.Herod was told he should have died twelve years ago.He had open heart surgery twenty years ago and had a pig valve installed and they said he would only have 8 or 9 years to live.He is still here because he is really careful about what he eats and pushes himself to do regular exercises.He has put two wives in the ground,unfortunately.I went to one of his wife's(Perl)grave site with him a couple of weeks ago.
I asked him if he ever caught a bullet.He said occasionally he would hear a bullet or two hit the tank that he was working on inside.
I asked him what it was like to live on the rations he was given to travel with.He said he had certain cans of meat that he would trade 3 or 4 of them to someone else for only one can of a different kind.
This led to the experience he had with two other men and a pig that I thought was funny.
He ended up somehow at a farm house with two other men(he told me why,but I forget now).There was a pig running around the deserted farm,and they killed it and prepared it for roasting.I asked him if he was the one that gutted and cleaned the pig.He said that one of the guys there was a butcher(how convenient),I laughed at the odds of that.By now I was starting to wonder if he was still really in the War.But he was.
They made a make shift rotisserie and speared it through the pig and started roasting it over an open fire.Each man would have to take turns running out to turn the pig rotisserie very quickly over the hot coals.Each man had to be very quick because the enemy would shoot from a distance toward the smoke from the coals.
No one got hit with a bullet and they eventually ate the pig.
From what I gather,I am the only one that was ever told first about this pig story because I found out later that his own son did not know this,and the son looks to be about 50 years old.
If anyone has any questions they would like to ask him about WW2,just let me know.
