K5: CHEHALIS, Wash. — Bob Kabel graduated from USC, worked for decades as a civil engineer, and has five great-grandchildren, but what does the 100-year-old Chehalis resident consider his greatest accomplishment?
“Saving the world,” said Kabel, who was an Army engineer from 1942 to 1946.
Kabel helped liberate Europe during World War II, arriving on the beaches of Normandy two months after the Allied invasion.
For his 100th birthday on Thursday, members of the Cascade Warbirds flew over Kabel’s assisted living center in a four-airplane formation.
The volunteer organization, made up of mostly veterans, fly former military planes at airshows, and to honor of fellow veterans.
Kabel said it was an honor seeing the planes fly overhead, just for his birthday. He did not know any of the pilots and said he wasn’t sure if he deserved the honor. more h/t Illustr8r.
Thank you for your Service Sir….
My wife’s father, died about 10 years ago, was one of the most extraordinary men I ever met. IQ off the charts, he got a full-ride scholarship to Stanford, electrical engineering. After Pearl Harbor he quit school (was told his scholarship would be gone, he did it anyway) joined the Navy, and went to Hawaii where he worked on raising several of the sunken ships. An accomplished man all his life, he always spoke fondly of doing his part, head of huge crews, working long hours, to get several of those ships back in action.
I often wonder (rhetorical, I know the answer) whether this current generation of young men has the same patriotic fervor, and would drop everything and fight for the defense of their nation.
Stephen Ambrose has written a number of books highlighting the mentality of the warfighters of that generation. How one day they were throwing baseballs and chasing girls, their future bright and boundless. After their country was attacked, they put away childish notions and answered the call and put themselves in harm’s way.
If not the greatest generation, at least one to be emulated and thanked.
Thank you sir for your efforts to help keep America and parts of the world free. My family had many free years and we will fight and stand firm to pass those freedoms on to other generations as did you. Have no doubt that we also have what it takes. It’s built in, those who think they can take it, have a big surprise waiting in the shadows with very sharp teeth and will power.
My father-in-law was an major in the army and was among the first to land on Omaha that fateful day. He later went on to fight in the Holland (Battle of the Bulge) and was among those — the second wave — to enter Berlin. He brought home some “trophies” — a set of German wine glasses, and Nazi uniform items (including a dress dagger/belt, a muslim fez, etc.). I was still in my 20’s and early 30’s when he died. I wished that I was the avid history buff I am today, because I would have had some very long conversations with him about his experiences in WWII. Like the rest of them, he never talked about the war, at all, but I bet I could have made him spill it. It was a very different America they returned to. Everyone was in a hurry to put it behind them and get on with it. I think the sentiment is very well captured in the film “The Best Years of our Lives”.
God bless all those young men, so eager to fight for what was right.
Thank you, Sir.
My Dad would turn 100 next year (if he was still alive).
He landed at Utah on D+2.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …