"An Austrian lance corporal with a thousand-yard stare. I’ve talked with you before about the thousand-yard stares. Do you know where does the expression come from? The phrase was popularized after Life magazine published the painting “Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare” by World War II artist and correspondent Tom Lea. The painting depicts a Marine during the Battle of Peleliu, from whom Lea said: “He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?” 1918"
Hi Jackie. It's me, "Dennis".
Just an FYI, I have no cross-gendered 'progressive' college student children. I merely made a comment on the apparent age of the soldiers in the picture. It's pretty unclear to me why you would make such a comment to me.
Not that it matters, my father, and many of my father's friends, served in combat in WWII. Some survived, some didn't. My father did survive the war in the Pacific. He recently passed away at 96YO.
Again, not that it matters, he attained the rank of Master Sergeant (E-8) in approximately 1 year. I heard many of his and his friends' tales of their war time experiences. Some of the "best" tales my father had from the war, well, he didn't talk about until the year he died. I finally got him to talk about those.
Going through his personal belongings I know with certainty that both his tales and the fact he achieved a rank that typically would take 8 years to achieve were true. He was in his 20s during the war, and neither he nor those in the photos with him during his time in the military looked as young as those in the picture I commented on.