# Question from a 90 year old war Veteran **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 8, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920 "2010-11-08T16:40:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/41 "2011-01-08T21:06:58Z")
Any updates Mikemike? What did the FILPhil say? ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/42 "2011-01-10T16:47:14Z")
what 90 year old war are you a veteran of? Can’t be WWII…that only lasted a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/43 "2011-01-10T17:28:36Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > what 90 year old war are you a veteran of? Can’t be WWII…that only lasted a few years. Well, it was six years long for Europeans, and four years long for Americans. And that can seem a very long time while you’re under enemy fire. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/44 "2011-01-10T18:19:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Well, it was six years long for Europeans, and four years long for Americans. And that can seem a very long time while you’re under enemy fire. Even so…Europeans love to fight. I’m sure there was a 90 year war there that one could be a veteran of. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/45 "2011-01-10T18:56:23Z")
Like World War I, maybe?: [First World War officially ends](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8029948/First-World-War-officially-ends.html) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/46 "2011-01-11T02:43:42Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Good news is no news. > > Consider this; a few years ago we had a really bad hurricane season . The press dubbed in the year of the hurricane. There was speculation that hurricanes were getting worse, that global warming would soon utterly lay waste to the Gulf of Mexico. But how many hurricanes were there last year? How many have there been this year? They’re been pretty mild hurricane years - but that doesn’t make the news. > > The OP’s father’s YOUTH was by far a worse time to live. He was born in 1920, I’d assume, and lived through a Depression that made this recession seem like a minor inconvenience, then lived through, and probably served in, the most destructive and savage war in the history of the world. And he was born just a bit too late to enjoy a worldwide plague. There were hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, famines, plagues and disasters, but back then you din’t have 24/7 coverage. Indeed, the press just misinterpreted the actual research. But there is a twist on that. > **[potholer54](https://www.youtube.com/user/potholer54#p/u/4/8pa8duiMiS0)** > > The purpose of this channel is to correct false scientific information on the internet. I am a former science journalist and geologist (see the "Who I am" video or channel trailer). > > Feel free to post. The only rules are : > > DON'T... > 1)... The researchers actually said that hurricanes would **not** be more numerous when global warming effects increase. The twist is that it is likely that the less numerous hurricanes will be much stronger. The very ironic thing was to see reports from FOX and others claiming that the recent hurricane activity discredited the scientists when it actually was confirming the peer reviewed research. Having said that, it would be extremely unlikely to see disasters like Galvestone \* (worst human loss than New Orleans had) as warnings and path prediction are more accurate now than like in the old times. > **[1900 Galveston hurricane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane)** > > The 1900 Galveston hurricane, also known as the Great Galveston hurricane and the Galveston Flood, and known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900 or the 1900 Storm, was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that became the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The strongest storm of the 1900 Atlantic hurricane season, it left between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities in the United States; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000. Most of these deaths occurred On Augus... > [@](#): > > The hurricane caused great loss of life with the estimated death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals;[3] the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of casualties of any Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and 1998’s Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast, the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, caused more than 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of approximately 1,800 people. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920/47 "2011-01-13T18:30:59Z")
I’m kind curious if Phil can imagine having a conversation in his youth with _his_ 90 year-old grandpa, and asking the old man if the hard times in the 1930s were a sign God was displeased with man’s sins. Would the old man agree, firmly believing that in his own youth in the 1850s, men were nobler? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-90-year-old-war-veteran/559920.md?page=2)