I love this so much. You did a really good job with this.

Oddest thing...
Grampa was stationed in Japan for 4 years.

They were sailing when they received word of the drop.
They landed in Nagasaki immediately after.

He had stories of his 4 years there, he had pictures, but...nothing about landing.
He did speak of waiting for the radiation to abate.
He did NOT speak of entering the city, or of the people.
He did tell me of taking his rations with him to hand out to the terrified civilians, of taking his tropical chocolate, hoping to give it to children, about Disney movies projected onto the sides of buildings (the cradle of Anime), of Japan's beautiful art and culture, but of the landing...
An echoing, empty patch.

I was a child and still, I knew better than to ask. It was like some sort of force field around him. Ask about the pretty temples. Don't ask about the single twisted, melted, tangled photo of what had once been the Mitsubishi Bomber plant.

An amusing addendum:
He left as...mmm, some sort of sergeant? They wanted him to go career.
He had 400 men, Japanese and American, working under him, but he was done with war. He'd never even MET his only child, who'd been born while he'd been sailing to Japan. (My mom.)
When he returned to Dallas, he looked into joining the police force, but they didn't want a quiet, experienced, taciturn, effective, gentle, disciplined, intelligent, laser-eyed, focused, 5' 10" military man
He wasn't considered tough enough if he wasn't 6' tall.

id love to see this turn into a actual story

Damned fine read.

Great story. I usually come back and reread most of your storys a few times a year. Mainly this one and make a wish are my favorite.

I never never asked Grandpa about WWII. If he talked I listened, there were some stories, but... some things are better left unsaid. Very well done with these Shaggy stories!

There is just something about your Shaggy stories that always brings me to tears.

Damned if I know why though.

Nice to see Freddy get some decent characterization.

God I love this story no matter how many times I read it great work

Frankly I think the deleted scene needs to be reintegrated. I also think you "Unofficial" story whould be spellchecked, then posted as a stand-alone story, but part 4 of this arc. I dropped you an email with some ideas for embellishment.

It would be wicked if on some mission Shaggy had ridden in a PBR commanded by BMC "Willie" Williams. If the name means nothing to you google him ... most decorated sailor in history. Some interaction with the Seawolves of HAL-3 would be nice too, as they are just the type of people Shaggy would love to hang with, IMO.

And maybe have a SEAL officer trying to poach Shaggy from the Green Berets, having gotten word that he had "been in touch" through the military grapevine.

The only problem I have noticed is that you put him in the "one oh one" in one place and in another outfit in a different spot or story. Maybe clean it up, or maybe he moved around a lot in those 9 months?

Please forget a one shot sequal pls pls pls pls pls just make a series out of it it’s and amazing idea and I’m totally hooked please let me know if you gonna keep it going I’m still gonna reread them several more times but pls let me know and if ya need some one to bounce ideas off somebody let me know ()

Pretty nice story. I'm wondering if Shaggy in this story is a Combat Tracker Team since it would explain why most of his file was blacked out as the CTT received training from the British in the Jungle Warfare Training school in Johor, Malaysia and the Brits kept the whole thing a secret as they didn't want the fact that they were training US soldiers in jungle warfare and tracking techniques being neutral in the conflict and all.

Damn this was beautiful. Hope you write more Vet Shaggy stories. Or maybe write an entire story rather than a oneshot

..., ...

I love this entire arc. Nothing more to say, vet-Shaggy is amazing.