These are the posts:
Higgenbotham wrote: ↑Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:49 pmNot sure I can draw any conclusions beyond that.Reality Check wrote:Your point ?Higgenbotham wrote:Reminds me, I rented to a man years ago who was of the Hero generation and had served in the Army for 20 years, including WWII. He was dying and died in my house. He told me a lot about his experiences. Two things I remember. One, he told me they killed their own soldiers that they deemed useless and a threat to the group (unable to pull their weight). Two, if a guy was injured real bad instead of trying to save him they would sometimes finish him off with a bullet.
One conclusion could be that war is a time when people deemed to be less fit are culled (even by their own peer group who would probably know best who can carry their weight).
But another conclusion could be that natural killers survive and spread their genes after the war and that's why killing never stops.
Mainly the point was that I was told this happened from someone who I deemed to be a reliable source because some of what he told me I was able to check and it was true. And I think what he said would surprise a lot of people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/us/8- ... wanted=all
"Don't forget to turn off the water heater."
Higgenbotham wrote: ↑Sun Jun 24, 2012 3:50 pmI've never seen or heard any other accounts of Americans killing their fellow soldiers during World War 2. Though I had read some of the Soviets doing so, I thought. A little digging brought this up:Reality Check wrote:I doubt you would have been "able to check" the part of the story that you believe "would surprise a lot of people".
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_soviet_ge ... n_soldiers
Now as far as what I was able to check from this guy. He said he survived the Battle of Osan (Korea) where he was one of seven American troops who came out alive. Some years later, he opened up a locked trunk and took out a Certificate of Valor issued by the Army describing the facts as he had told me which of course my inclination was not to believe the story when I heard it. War stories are like big fish stories as far as I'm concerned. The second thing he told me as that he transported enemy soldiers and later I saw some evidence of that but don't remember what it was. The third thing he told me was that after the war he cleaned mines off the beach in Okinawa and got some bad sunburns. Later, when he had surgery on his forehead for skin cancer that reminded me of his story and the fact that it might be true. He didn't stay at my house; he rented a separate house and I talked to him maybe a couple hours per month over a period of 10 years.
Higgenbotham wrote: ↑Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:03 pmHe married a woman 32 years younger than him after he had his stroke. She got his military benefits when he died and took care of him until he died. He bought her a trailer and she lived in a trailer park a couple miles away. So, yeah, he was lonely and instead of mailing me the rent check he liked for me to come over and talk for awhile. I never thought about it at the time but sitting around partly immobilized and going over all those horrors in your mind would be a hell of a way to go.
This guy was very insistent that God didn't exist. This was to the extent that he sought people out who also believed that God didn't exist and arranged for me to meet them. His favorite way to express that was, "When you're dead, you're dead." Also, more than once, about his experiences on the battlefield, he said, "I'd see a head laying over here, an arm laying over there, and I would think to myself how can there be a God?" I think he believed and repeatedly articulated that because he had killed people.
He had also raped his 12 and 13 year old stepdaughters. When he was arrested, he called me from jail and asked me to bail him out. He ended up being convicted and was in jail for a few months, then returned to the house. He saw nothing wrong with raping the girls (the Chinese had supplied him with underage girls during the war) and he constantly complained about what a bitch his PO was and even said once he could kill one of the girls for opening her mouth.
So, people like this exist, I've met a few of them, and they will be quite active if law and order break down. Some people may wish to believe they don't exist, but wishing it isn't so doesn't change the fact that it is.
In addition to his favorite phrases about God not existing, he also like to say, "Revenge, how sweet it is!"