by caappy » Tue Mar 18, 2025 8:56 pm
At 98 years old, Shipe is among the youngest of the remaining U.S. veterans to have fought in World War II, after joining the Army in early 1945 just after his high school graduation in Long Beach. He’s part of a shrinking group: Roughly 120,000 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II — fewer than 1% — were alive as of 2023, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics.
Shipe graduated from high school in February 1945, and he joined the Army the next month. Shipe, who said he had “never been away from home a night in my life,” was soon training at a California base, preparing with the 97th Infantry Division for beach attacks in the Pacific Theatre.
But that changed when Nazi Germany surrounded Bastogne, Belgium, in the Battle of the Bulge, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower sent some troops, including Shipe’s division, to Europe for the final months of the campaign. Shipe carried a Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, in combat, often having to lug bandoliers that held several magazines of ammunition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7fr12E ... ransCenter
Sent him 2 photos on 27 Feb and got them back signed on 18 Mar
Mr Robert Shipe
![[us]](./images/smilies/flag_us.gif "USA")
1722 E Camino Springs Apt 17
Palm Springs, CA 92264
At 98 years old, Shipe is among the youngest of the remaining U.S. veterans to have fought in World War II, after joining the Army in early 1945 just after his high school graduation in Long Beach. He’s part of a shrinking group: Roughly 120,000 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II — fewer than 1% — were alive as of 2023, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs statistics.
Shipe graduated from high school in February 1945, and he joined the Army the next month. Shipe, who said he had “never been away from home a night in my life,” was soon training at a California base, preparing with the 97th Infantry Division for beach attacks in the Pacific Theatre.
But that changed when Nazi Germany surrounded Bastogne, Belgium, in the Battle of the Bulge, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower sent some troops, including Shipe’s division, to Europe for the final months of the campaign. Shipe carried a Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, in combat, often having to lug bandoliers that held several magazines of ammunition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7fr12EDI6k&ab_channel=AmericanVeteransCenter
Sent him 2 photos on 27 Feb and got them back signed on 18 Mar
Mr Robert Shipe [us]
1722 E Camino Springs Apt 17
Palm Springs, CA 92264
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