I'm late to the party but I like to tell people about my experience with WWII veterans.
About 3 years ago I was stationed in Washington, DC and volunteered to show some WWII veterans around the area and help them walk around the WWII monument. I didn't really think much of it when I first volunteered to do it, and was honestly more concerned with where the hell I was going to party that night. But that day literally changed my life.
One of my good buddies and I got paired up with a funny old looking man from NYC named Rory. Rory was in the army during WWII and mainly in western France for the duration of the war. He was shy and quiet at first, but quickly warmed up to us after a while and treated us like old friends. After a while he was telling us stories about everything from French hookers to the time he gave his water canteen to an injured but friendly enough Nazi he met in the woods. One story that has always stuck with me is about a day his squad was in north western France...
Rory and his squad were eating by their jeeps and in general hadn't seen much action so far, so they were pretty relaxed that day. But after a short while they were told that some Nazis had been spotted over the hill where they had seen some children playing earlier in the day. One of Rory's friends who he called "Beaver" (apparently had really bad teeth) seemed pretty troubled by this. Rory made sure to point out at this point that Beaver loved everyone, but he was the "loose screw" of the group and did things on impulse. Beaver jumped into one of the jeeps and flew over the hill before anyone could even question what he was doing. Rory went on and said that they all thought that would be the last time anyone would see "ole beavs" and were trying to figure out how to approach this information to the command. About 5 minutes after Beaver had taken off, they could here gunfire going off like crazy. At this point they lost all hope and were starting to pack their gear back up, but Rory said someone heard and engine coming closer. Rory said, and I quote... "Beaver jumped that goddamn jeep about 6 feet off the top of that hill, with two kids laughing and cheering in the back louder than the jeep itself." After that story I didn't know what to think. I was just some kid in the Air Force and woke up that morning pissed off for waking up early and wondering where I can meet some chicks that night. It was the biggest reality check I have ever had in my life. I was there with people who I've read about in history books, movies are made of, model planes and tanks i made when i was a kid, video games... the people who made it, as it is today. For the first time in my life I was humbled, honored, at a loss of words to meet someone.
The last thing Rory did with me and my buddy was pull out 3 mini bottles of Jack Daniels, and we each drank in the honor of "his friends from France who never made it back."
If you ever get the chance, try and meet up with some WWII veterans, it was the most humbling experience of my life.
I went through the Honor Flight Network. More info here on that program