The grandfather of a close friend was in WWII in Italy; he was a sniper. There was a situation where he and his spotter were witnessing a couple Nazis beating and raping a civilian woman; I believe they were doing something to her child as well but can't be sure. They wanted to fire and kill them right away but their CO ordered them to hold off as not to reveal their location; apparently there was a specific Nazi they were supposed to off.
Anyway they could still see it happening inside a house and couldn't watch any longer and went against their orders, left their guns at the sniper location, snuck into the house and killed the Nazis with knives. They then returned to their location to continue their duties.
The family knew he was in the war but didn't know he was a sniper or anything that happened, he never ever talked about anything that happened until his last couple of years he started to let it out. In the end there just wasn't enough time to get all of his stories before he passed.
I have so much respect for the veterans of WWII and understand their sacrifice. I am ashamed that as a young person and teenager I didn't want to participate in the ceremonies in school and didn't give credit where credit was due. I wish one of the veterans would have slapped me upside of the head and sat me down and told me some of these personal stories so I really understood where our freedom comes from.
If I am ever in the presence of someone disrespecting a war veteran I am going to slap them off their chair even if I take a beating after.
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