All Comments on 'Finding Uncle Billy'

I hate that I am limited to 5 stars

Mr O.

Read, again, with my wife. She really enjoyed this great story, also. Thank you.

Again, an excellent read! My only questions - why did Lt Finch not make contact with those who came through trying to find the unit? And when is the next chapter due out? Excellent story, thank you.

What a great story. I loved this MC, she was so strong and determined thought of both of them and not just herself. He was arrogant and selfish. Almost wished she found someone else. But the honor her uncle Billy showed was incredible. Only thing was why didn't he let anyone know where his men were buried or even write home to his family explaining why he is not returning home. Great read, great comments posted, need to give the author the honor it deserves 5 stars.

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I had read this some years ago and it stuck in my mind and I managed to find it again. Now I sit here in tears after reading it. What an incredible and emotional tale. Finding Uncle Billy. He promised his men no one would be left behind, His promise kept him there when he could have gone home and lived a long life. They called him the mad man on the ridge, and yet he kept it safe for the children that played there.

This could be a true story but even if it isn't it sure points out the sadness of war and our missing loved ones. Remember praise all those who have served and fought and died because they had no other choice. Perhaps someday we will find a way to eliminate war.

Yet another excellent story from Sky Grey. Very moving and factual. You have a knack of bring life to the fore. Wish that it was possible to give more than 5* as it deserves more. As a previous comment said " need to do something about the dust here"

A wonderful and moving story. Lt. Finch a man whose devotion to duty and his word should be held in regard to all. Especially politicians.

Shame we can only give 5 stars it’s a real tearjerker wonderful story

First, what a joy ! Love the continuation of setting and characters of SKY GREY. You stopped writing. I encourage you to write some more. Your feeling, your insight, your attention to detail is just awesome

GREAT!!!!!!

🤷🤷😉👍👍👍👍💯💯💯💯💯👍👍😉😉😂👌🍕🍻

Wonderful story, well written, very moving. Thank you.

A brilliant story brilliantly written. I am going to have to do something about the dust in here

To those criticizing the sex, you seem to have no experience in life. It is a well known phenomenon that and close brush with death often triggers the need for reaffirmation of life, i.e. sex.

Reading this I was reminded of The Things They Carried. Both works, fiction, about two wars separated by half a century. The most significant aspect of each story is that the fiction carried more truth about war, its consequences, and aftermath than any history book I've ever read.

After rereading most of your works I’d like to say damn son write some more. Please.

It's not erotic at all, but it's a fantastic story! Outstanding and a great read, the ending leaves me a little confused but otherwise I loved it!

Why is this not a screenplay or better yet, a produced feature film? That said, most of the meticulous, evocative, deeply moving exposition would be left out. So, a novel as well.

Another great story well executed. Thanks!

In every way there are soldiers who are never found for a variety of reasons. I doubt that the loss of a whole platoon is a common event. The impact on a small communityusy be unimaginable. Somehow you've made it real. If read this some time ago but had forgotten it until I stumbled on it via terror attack at the hospital. Majestic. Emotionally wrenching.

LMJ

THANK YOU !! DIF TYPE OF STORY FOR HERE.. brings pause to All celebrations for Veterans and Memorial day no matter where they are..!! 👍👍🙄🤔👍👍😉😁💯✝️🛐🙏

Tremendous writing. I couldn't stop reading once I started. Thank you.

Cher Monsieur Malraux - I’m crying.

U s/b paid to write: plot, character development, descriptive settings, explicit sex but not overmuch. Wow.

Fabulous! Should read this every Memorial Day.... revisiting all your posts but this is one of the best. Thanks for sharing with us.

Wow. I hope that story is passed down to your progeny forever.

A great read, thank you. My Great uncle was buried by a German artillery barrage in 1917 France, he was from South Dekota. He was gone by the time his comrades dug him out. My father, myself & my son bear his name. My father in remembrances of him, my son in remembrances of my father.

Stories like this make your eyeballs sweat.

2nd reading for me and this is an excellent story

Wow, fucking outstanding story!!!

"...history saves the meaning of our lives."  Malraux, from Finding Uncle Billy."

********************

"For the first time, Ryan, I think my profession is more important than yours."

********************>

"I told her my career was more important. That I save lives," he said.

His mother resisted the urge to hit his leg again. "And what does she save?" she said. She thought to herself, I sure would like to meet this girl. She was pretty, and her statements in the story were intelligent.

He was quiet, thinking. She saves their moment, he realized.

*********************

And not just their moments.  Their meaning; their triumphs, their tragedies, their life within their lives; their purpose. And not just for them.  To us all to understand and grow and learn from, not just in what they did or who they were, but in how that affects our lives and our history's meaning.

I came to Literotica for the smut.  I've stayed for the extraordinary stories, the writing and profound understanding I've sometimes found.  Malraux has given us a true gem here; something to think about and grasp it if we can.

Again, still a great read. Wish it were true so visiting the site were possible

Thank you! As a USAF- Retired, I love military stories. Especially ones that have a historical significance beyond here and now. Even today, there are still MIA/KIAs being recovered and repatriated. The significance to most is saddening; however, some of us feel itore poignantly! Thank you! Captain, USAF-Retired.

Brilliant writing, my thanks to you.

Added to my G.O.A.T. folder (greatest of all time).

Another truly amazing story. A sincere thank you.

Please. I humbly ask. In time...please consider writing more here. These are all just amazing.

“There is always a need for intoxication: China has opium, Islam has hashish, the West has woman.”

Andre Malraux

Your short body of work at Literotica almost screams to me that your understandings, your writing skills, far surpass those of Andre Malraux. I do hope you recognize and take some significant-to-you satisfactions in your understandings, as well as in your abilities/finely honed skills to convey some of them in this forum.

Example: Your simple acknowledgements of Christian doubts and faiths (more-so seen in some of your other stories) demonstrate truly profound understandings.

I add my “Thank You!” to the many expressed here and, I am certain, the many more experienced but unwritten by your readers.

All Best Regards,

Craig

Fabulous story

What a story, Awesome. As Remeberance Day aproaches here in the UK it felt a fitting reminder of why we do remember the fallen in all conflicts these days and what they gave for our freedoms. And I suspect what happened to the Lost Platoon happend to a few in that first Great War

As I work through your stories for the second time, I was struck by how much this story is of the ilk that dtiverson puts out around the 4th of July each year. It’s very unique, appears to be well researched, and manages to be quite moving. Thanks!

very long, great ending. dump the jerk Ryan as it will be a constant battle with his ego forever.

My second time around reading this, I commented earlier as an anon previously re family at rest in Wimereux and Auchonvilliers. This is still a very moving story and I’m not afraid to say I’ve shed a tear or two reading this again a year on. You just nailed this one Malraux, many thanks for writing and posting, regards, Ppfzz.

Still think this story is awesome.

WOW, Just... Stupendous.

I honestly had my doubts as to how you could make this story memorable but you proved me wrong. No wonder Uncle Billy lost his sanity seeing what he did. 5⛤

Wonderful story

Wonderfully written, but seems as it is not *quite* complete... Not referring to whether she and the ex come back together. But it seems as though there should be one more scene.

Oh...other than the typical (minor) grammar issues, the "D" in PhD is supposed to be capitalized.

THANK YOU!

Very well done.

A masterpiece. Absolute masterpiece. I have toured the WW1 battlefields and was powerfully moved. This did the same for me.

“History is our memory of Humanity” …. what an exceptional quote.

My sincere thanks

Wow just wow. I must live fairly close to the author. I reside in the actual at or near the places mentioned for the platoon. Both of my Grandfathers served in the Great War. This story hit me hard.

Your characters are so alive, even Uncle Billy after so many years. You had me in tears by the end. An absolute masterpiece.

Repeating Anonymous." if you are not writing professionally you should be." Please msg me if/when you publish the title of your book if I am alive I will by the book.

If you are not, you should be writing professionally.

Deeply moving; superb storytelling; engaging multifaceted characters.

Five stars seems so inadequate.

Thank you for your time and effort. Your story moved me very deeply .

Second time, (apparently), that I have discovered this story. Outstanding work

Trish was not a slut. What kind of rock are you living at? Double standards are the signs of BS 3000. She was already single before she even stepped on the plane to France. And Jacques was unattached so what's the big deal if they, two single consenting adults, did the deed? Besides, even though I know the story is Fiction, it was written with care and respect to people who lost their lives in that war. Acknowledging the sacrifice of those who fought in the war and the despair and longing of their families who were left back home. I have been reading a lot of stories here in Literotica for years and yours, Malraux, is one of my favorites so far. Well written, has little to no grammatical errors and the storyline is believable and pulls the heart strings. Congratulations and I will keep on reading and looking out for your work. 10 stars if possible. :-)

WOW you have a profound impact with your words - - Thank you !!

`only one word. WOW!!

This story had me in bits, our family has two relatives from ‘14/18 in France, one in Auchonvilliers & one in Wimereux, we can and have visited and remembered them. We’re far more fortunate than many. Many thanks Malraux.

Just an awesome story, like everything I've read of yours so far. Thankfully, I still have a couple left to read.

awsome . all your stories are great READS. hope you can continue. GB

Without a doubt.

...

Max stars allowed, Favorited

What the hell is wrong with some of you. Trish was wrong to have sex with someone when she was completely unattached and so was he? My gods the fucking hubris.

A wonderful story.

Absolutely wonderful.

I loved it. I too wondered about Trish’s giving of herself to the Frenchman, but I learned long ago never to question the working of a woman’s mind. My grandfather fought in France in WWI, a member of “C” Co, 357th Reg. , 90th Div. of the AEF. All he would ever tell me about his experience there was that he spent a little time in Nancy, and that’s where he learned to love canned oysters. I know from reading his discharge papers that he fought in the Offensives of St. Mihiel and Meuse Argonne. My grandmother, whom he married in 1921, said she never ever heard him speak of his experiences in the war. And what a bitch of a war that must have been. After all, they did call it The War To End All Wars. Thanks Malraux, for the story.

A likeable story.

This gem appears to be based on actual WWI events.

Great! I wish you were still writing and posting stories.

5

Outstanding and entertaining story with a perfect outcome. Loved it.

Your story moved me very deeply. I'm getting a bit more emotional these day, ever since my wife passed. Is there any truth or fact to this story?

Please don't let the criticism get to you. You story does not even belong in this venue it would stand alone anywhere and the sex scenes were not even necessary to the story line. besides back then during war women gave themselves to men. It has been proven during war more male babies are born the females. Perhaps it is preservation of the species. Anyone who criticizes females in this venue as being sluts should probably not be reading them. I've always loved the old double standard surrounding sex, promiscuous females are sluts and promiscuous males are just horny men doing what men are supposed to do. All of us have some lust in our hearts.

Chur m8 awsum story

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Any woman who opens her legs to a complete stranger is a slut! To imply that Trish was over come due to finding the 42 dead bodies is really morbid! Does Trish have sex in grave yards! Her comment that History is more important that Medicine is crap. People who are living all always more important than dead people!

Can't give even 4 from me. First very little connection with romance category, more towards novel. Second sex with french guy absolutely not necessary, kind of forced on the scene.

If it was in novel category could have 5 plus for all the details and the story.

Because whether or not you are aware of it, you and I are involved in a serious love/hate relationship. Every so often, when I'm not busy cursing your ancestors for your birth… which resulted in this writing... thus my incessant, insomniac crying jags... I pause to be consciously grateful for that same event. When I'm not awash in sentimental tears, I'm thankful for your education and careful research, the diversity of your plotlines and populations, and the fact that you respect your readers enough to provide a story free of dumbed-down vocabulary and jarring technical errors. Most of all, I am thankful to you for sharing these characters with us. More and more, as I make my way through the list, I'm left feeling the impact of nameless multitudes of warriors, the weight of Donne's "clods" washed away by the sea, and that's solely due to your talent in bringing people and their pivotal moments to life. So, thank you. And I hate you. Stop making me cry, dammit.

Very nice. Creative. Thank you.

One very small thing: you called Billy Trish’s great-uncle, but as the brother of her great-grandfather, Billy would have been her great-great-uncle. Here’s the way to work it out when you get confused (it’s easy to get lost): your father’s (or mother’s) brother is your uncle (and their sister is your aunt), your grandfather’s brother is your great-uncle (there is no “grand-uncle”), your great-grandfather’s brother is your great-great-uncle, and so on. To put it another way, the “greats” for uncles do not parallel the “greats” for grandfathers; the uncles always have one more “great” then the grandfather in the same generation.

I lived in Holland and Belgium for many years and work took me through so many of the back roads of those countries and Northern France. I have also visited Arlington.

I took time to visit many of the cemeteries, many times on my own, and during weekdays I was the sole person there - but strangely I never felt I was alone!

They peaceful places wrought by violence and horror and a monument to mans inhumanity to man.

Before contemplating war every countries leaders should be made to take a long walk through these avenues of the dead and be made to contemplate the results of poorly made decisions.

19pvc44

There is something about a story by the Literotica Malraux that always has my eyes tearing up while reading it. This well written tale was no exception. It's another in the author's Sky Grey, Ohio series of stories, and I have to say I enjoyed each one I've read. I think they represent some of the best writing on this site.

It's fictional, but I loved the history that inspired it. If there had been a Lost Platoon whose fate was discovered by a doctoral student, I'd like to think this is the way it would be handled. As far as I know, there is no town in France named Rochambeau, but naming it for the french general who aided us in the revolution was a nice touch. I thought that the ending, with Trish standing at the grave site and loudly stating "Uncle Billy, we are here" was nothing less than brilliant.

One thing though, there is no way you can fly out an Air France terminal at LaGuardia. I wish! The runways are way too short, although it would have been possible to land the small plane there. Trish would have needed to take a cab down to JFK. Sorry for the nitpick. Thanks for the wonderful story.

I just knew that in the last scene those 2 little kids were going to run up and wrap her in their arms and she was going to tell Mr Doctor not to let the door hit him on his way back to SLC.

I went back and read the entire Wikipedia page about WWI whilst reading this story. It was a war that should have never been fought, and of course, it set the stage for Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. Back to the story, riveting. Nice romance woven into the history. Well done!

I'm a WWII and Korea veteran and sat here with tears running down my cheeks as I finished this very moving story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

As a fifth generation serviceman (my family have been in almost every conflict since the Boer War right through to Afghanistan ) who knew the members of his family who fought in both WW1 & 2 I REALLY appreciated the subject matter!

I would edit out the sex it takes away rather than adds to the story. Then have it published properly! It is both good enough and worth it!

Very moving & touching.

If there were ten star ratings this one deserves it. 5* only because I can't rate it a 10. Thanks for the read.

This story is just incredible. I’ll be thinking about it for a very long time.

Thanks for writing it, and thanks too, for sharing.

As others sard before, this is a very moving tale. And I would like to add that the present times, so full of hateful and nationalistic rethoric, need to be reminded of the importance of love and a peaceful coexistence of the different countries of this small world. So this story is told at the right moment.

Well written and a page turner. I, too, wondered about the sex with the Frenchman. It was only peripheral to the story and could have been left out. But, merci', this is a sex site, no?

Trish got lucky; good for her. But it appears she's about to blow it. A surgeon? God help her. Men age like wine, women age like cheese. As Ryan evolves in his career he will be increasingly lionized and idolized by increasingly younger and beautiful nurses, surgical support staff, and patient's families. Ryan is arrogant by nature and upbringing. And he is entering a profession that can make even the most humble person see themselves as God's gift to humanity. Too many surgeons come to see themselves as medical rock stars, deserving of some extra-marital stress relief. If Trish is lucky she will escape before she ends up a worn middle-aged single parent and college professor, all be it with a very decent financial settlement. But it won't be enough to compensate for her lost opportunity for genuine passionate life-long love, with a man who lives as much for her as she for him. Don't write that depressing sequel.

I did not understand the spontaneous fuck with the French man. Was that supposed to mean something? Or was that just a nod to the porn site hosing your stories? It only made Trish look cheap and stupid. Too bad.

Thanks for you efforts, I really enjoyed the story.

Published anywhere would be quite a story. But here, among so many blurts, this really stood out.

I don't mean this site doesn't have gems; it does. But because the volume of publishing on a daily basis is so great, it's really hard to find those few gems.... like those rustic muzzles Trish found in that Moreau farm...

You have to love HISTORY to dedicate so much time to paint this kind of story on a canvass...

Thank you for sharing.

Great story

Have you read the story of the Australian Missing at Fromelles (19 July 1916)

Many similarities - without the romance though

I understood that the first action by American troops in WWI was at Le Hamel on 4th July 1918)

Absolutely enjoyed it and will think of it when I am back in France in July.

In your bio you stated that you wished you were an expert at something well sir with the stories you write if your not an expert your so close that I would not try to split frog hairs thank you for your writings .

This is about finding uncle Billy. It had a bolted on romance. The story eats its cake and yours too. If the disrespect he showed warranted a response not even worthy of a brief explanation, she should have never considered him for a romantic partner again. Or it should have warranted a good communication session, because it was a reversible transgression out of pride or ignorance. But it ended up with her punishing him like a child, again, without useful communication to learn that he's matured. There's nothing romantic about this. It's actually repulsive.

Thank you for honoring those who went "over there" in 1918 and never returned. My grandfather was one of the fortunate ones who returned alive and well, but many thousands did not.

The best line in the story? "Crow." ;-)

Your work continues to amaze! Thanks so much for your continuing contributions here!

I started reading this tale and some names started sounding familiar. For all who might not know check out another fantastic story from Malraux, Jonas Agonistes.

You will find another great tale.

Well Done sir...

This was simply an outstanding story. 50* would be too few.

This is a wonderful tale that covers so many of the emotional factors in the human condition. The nurturing Trish received from her mentor, the angst and ego that drive the start of the relationship between Trish and Ryan, the impact of the loss of Aime Moreau Durand so many years after the original tragedy, Ryan's apparent acceptance of the burdens of maturity - just to name a few of the undercurrents the author crafted into the story.

And I thank the author for hosting us on another visit to Sky Grey for those of us who have earlier discovered Malraux' great talents.

I have two great uncles who were lost in the Great War, "Missing, Presumed Dead" so this had great significance to me.

So good it brought tears to this old Marines eyes. The thought of the loved ones that don't come home gets me every time. Well done, and thank you for it. 5 Stars ain't enough!