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D-Day - 75th Anniversary


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On 6/8/2021 at 3:35 PM, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Spent D-Day in MN at Fort Snelling paying respect to my grandfather (Staff Sargeant, Army, WWII). My grandmother and their oldest daughter (who died as a teenager 50 years before them) is also there.

Then I met with a cousin and retrieved the final medals from my great uncle (Grampa's younger brother, Lt Jr. Grade, Navy). He received the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross for action in the Pacific. He sank a Japanese fighter off Honshu in July of '45 from his F6F Hellcat. On August 6th of '46-his last day in the service as he was headed home to MN and his bride the next day-he was killed when a young cadet in their trainer made a mistake. This was at Cabaniss Field outside of Corpus Christi. His funeral was the day before his 24th birthday.

Had some polishing to do.
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My grandfather served at Snelling about the same time. He lost three brothers in World War 2, all in the Navy. Damn fine generation. 

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17 hours ago, Armybrat said:

My Dad didn’t have it so cushy either when we landed on Attu to take it back from the Japanese.  The weather could be atrocious up there, even in summer. He spent 7 months in a tent in the Aleutians in 1943. The japanese fared even worse.

He took these photos…

 

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22B98241-3E78-480F-AB6A-5E2FB6300551.jpeg

That's fantastic!  

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Wife's father.  His father was at Omaha and made it inland past the hedgerow's and survived the war.  He (father) has all of his (g-father's) medals and citations in a shadow box.  One year we tried to surprise him and get his dad's war records but the area housing them near St. Louis burned down decades ago.  

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It's sad how few WWII veterans are left.

I remember in high school we had a big event for WWII veterans on 12/7/91.  It was well attended by local vets.  They did not seem that old to me and 1991 does not seem that long ago.  Almost all those guys are gone.  I just googled and apparently there is just one surviving member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th, and he's 97.

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2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

It's sad how few WWII veterans are left.

I remember in high school we had a big event for WWII veterans on 12/7/91.  It was well attended by local vets.  They did not seem that old to me and 1991 does not seem that long ago.  Almost all those guys are gone.  I just googled and apparently there is just one surviving member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th, and he's 97.

Hard times make hard men

Hard men make good times

Good times make weak men.....

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  • 1 year later...

80 years ago this overnight, Supreme Allied Command meets in Britain to settle on 5 June for the invasion of Normandy.  We now know it will be postponed by a day for weather.  But the plan and logistics are settled right about now.  In four weeks time, the largest event in human history begins. Our world will never be the same again.  That the buildup occurs so discreetly is almost as impressive as the beach assault itself.  80 years Ago years of planning are set into motion tonight on a wing and a prayer.  Too many men loSt their lives; but it worked.   

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7 hours ago, YGIFS said:

80 years ago this overnight, Supreme Allied Command meets in Britain to settle on 5 June for the invasion of Normandy.  We now know it will be postponed by a day for weather.  But the plan and logistics are settled right about now.  In four weeks time, the largest event in human history begins. Our world will never be the same again.  That the buildup occurs so discreetly is almost as impressive as the beach assault itself.  80 years Ago years of planning are set into motion tonight on a wing and a prayer.  Too many men loSt their lives; but it worked.   

I suppose one man is too many.  The latest death number (approximately 4,400) actually is shockingly low considering the scale of the invasion.  My avatar eventually came around to support the landing at Normandy but he feared 100,000 men would die that day.  For the latest death number see https://www.history.com/news/d-day-casualties-deaths-allies

 

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80 years ago, later tonight...Erwin Rommel will make plans to shop for a gift to commemorate his wife's 50th birthday.  He will return to command for the next few weeks at the Fuhrer's request.  What should not be lost to history is Rommel is off the line on D-day for wife's birthday.  Though it is typical sentimentality, Rommel thought it appropriate to mark his wife's 50th birthday with the tradition of anniversary gifts/colors.  He was sweet like that.  

Not that the Allied plan would have not have succeeded but in one of a series of fortunate coincidences, Rommel fails to keep his "eye on the ball" so to speak.  Because to mark 50 years for Lucia.  Rommel on this day begins to shop for something special for his lovely wife.  In honor of her turning 50, he looks for something that marks that number of years.  Something Gold.  The very beach head he failed to protect weeks later enabling the Normandy Invasion to go even better than planned.  Gold.  A continent was retaken in the name of freedom because the only capable German high command member shopped for Gold and didn't plan for Gold.  And the rest as they say, was that.  

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80 years ago, later tonight...Erwin Rommel will make plans to shop for a gift to commemorate his wife's 50th birthday.  He will return to command for the next few weeks at the Fuhrer's request.  What should not be lost to history is Rommel is off the line on D-day for wife's birthday.  Though it is typical sentimentality, Rommel thought it appropriate to mark his wife's 50th birthday with the tradition of anniversary gifts/colors.  He was sweet like that.  
Not that the Allied plan would have not have succeeded but in one of a series of fortunate coincidences, Rommel fails to keep his "eye on the ball" so to speak.  Because to mark 50 years for Lucia.  Rommel on this day begins to shop for something special for his lovely wife.  In honor of her turning 50, he looks for something that marks that number of years.  Something Gold.  The very beach head he failed to protect weeks later enabling the Normandy Invasion to go even better than planned.  Gold.  A continent was retaken in the name of freedom because the only capable German high command member shopped for Gold and didn't plan for Gold.  And the rest as they say, was that.  

So, pussy was undefeated then too?
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On 5/9/2024 at 1:07 AM, YGIFS said:

80 years ago this overnight, Supreme Allied Command meets in Britain to settle on 5 June for the invasion of Normandy.  We now know it will be postponed by a day for weather.  But the plan and logistics are settled right about now.  In four weeks time, the largest event in human history begins. Our world will never be the same again.  That the buildup occurs so discreetly is almost as impressive as the beach assault itself.  80 years Ago years of planning are set into motion tonight on a wing and a prayer.  Too many men loSt their lives; but it worked.   

Was speaking to my Dad about this. He said something interesting. The planning for this started in January of 1942. Sure, there were "plans" drawn up, but this is when they were modified and put into action. The Logistics behind Normandy are amazing.

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8 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Was speaking to my Dad about this. He said something interesting. The planning for this started in January of 1942. Sure, there were "plans" drawn up, but this is when they were modified and put into action. The Logistics behind Normandy are amazing.

I know I bring it up all the god damn time, but everyone needs to read Bodyguard of Lies.  The logistics, intelligence games played, and the cloak/dagger shit that went into the invasion is still mind bottling all these years later.  

Before any invasion could be entertained all German spies/sympathizers had to be identified.  Before they could be identified the Enigma codes had to be broken.  To break the codes you had the infamous Blechley Park smart dudes with Turin.  Once codes were broken, communication lines established, you then had to capture and turn each spy.  One by one.  These double-agents fed Germany mountains of false information.  As the grandfather of "fake news", you had an entire garrison (operation Quicksilver) that create a fake army out of thin air for Patton to command.  Blow-up equipment like rubber tanks/planes. trucks, fake supplies, letters home, training schedules, injury reports, promotions, chow schedules, everything.  All this had the Germans convinced they had a strong understand of who would command the landings and where.  

And all that, and it wasn't the largest landing of the war.  Okinawa was.  

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Attending the Paris Olympics and plan to visit Normandy for a couple of days. I've been once back in 1998. My dad (WWII vet) was my guide, but sadly he passed a few years ago.  Any recommendations on tour guides or should I buy a book and do it myself?  I will have a rental car.

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About this current time in the theater, the Allies sink two U-Boats on the North Atlantic as secretive surface activity begins in earnest in anticipation of Overlord.  
 

meanwhile, at nearly the exact same time…the Wermacht evacuation of troops and sailors from Crimea is completed.  
 

80 years later, I gotta listen to fucking morons who don’t understand the Nazis left SW Russia.  They’re not there anymore to wiped out by Putin. Maybe we could do our grandpas a solid learn a thing or two from history. Because all worship and admiration of dictators aside, if you remember one thing about land wars in Europe.   It’s this.  They have a tendency to spread and take a massive amount of time and casualties.  Some Of us will do well to remember that.  
 

The next time a continent needs to be re-taken, it will make Overlord look like a misunderstanding.  

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Attending the Paris Olympics and plan to visit Normandy for a couple of days. I've been once back in 1998. My dad (WWII vet) was my guide, but sadly he passed a few years ago.  Any recommendations on tour guides or should I buy a book and do it myself?  I will have a rental car.

It’s been a few years but we used Mark Lane who I would highly recommend. I can’t seem to find the contact info for him but perhaps you can track him down. Hopefully he’s still doing the guided tours.

Quick bio:

An american historian, Mark is the former director at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas, which houses one of the largest World War II combat collections outside the holdings of the US military. Mark’s presentations cover the facts and figures with breadth and depth, and he enjoys focusing on the experience of the war from the perspective of a typical allied soldier, which gives the historical information a more personal touch. He relates the specific D-Day events to the broader scope of the war.
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14 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

And all that, and it wasn't the largest landing of the war.  Okinawa was.

I guess it depends on how you measure it. By the end of the first day, the Allies had about 180,000 men on French soil (156,000 amphibious plus 24,000 Airborne). About 60,000 men landed in Okinawa on day one. 

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For those who watched Masters of the Air, and were curious about the Tuskegee Airmen who ended up in the Stalag with the 8th Air Force guys, they were a part of Operation Dragoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dragoon) which was a landing in Southern France a few months after D-Day.  It was a somewhat smaller scale, but used the lessons learned from Normandy (they used a lot of special operations folks from the US, England, France, and Canada, as well as the French Resistance). It helped to relieve the pressure on Normandy in terms of getting men and equipment ashore, and it sped up the liberation of Southern France, and inflicted a lot of casualties on the Germans.

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7 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

I guess it depends on how you measure it. By the end of the first day, the Allies had about 180,000 men on French soil (156,000 amphibious plus 24,000 Airborne). About 60,000 men landed in Okinawa on day one. 

I've read larger by both metrics - number of ships at sea as well as men.  You also have to remember the Navy at Normandy was largely safe from attack.  Okinawa was not.  They got pounded, especially by Kamikaze's

Okinawa

Quote

In the following weeks, more than 1,600 ships and 350,000 naval personnel would assemble to form the largest amphibious assault force of World War II.  

Quote

The invasion of Okinawa was larger in terms of the number of troops involved and the scale of the operation. The Battle of Okinawa, which took place from April to June 1945, involved a combined force of over 180,000 U.S. troops, as well as troops from the United Kingdom and Canada, against the defending Japanese forces. In comparison, the D-Day invasion, also known as the Normandy landings, involved around 156,000 Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

 

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Posted (edited)

My grandfather served in the North Atlantic but moved down to the South Pacific as a Logistics NCO on a Destroyer (his plaque is up at the Nimitz Museum here in the Hill Country /csb).  He literally served against blood relatives in the Kriegsmarine (his father had only come to America just a couple decades before while many others stayed behind in Bavaria and eventually served in various branches of the Wermacht.  Anyway, Grandpa ships off for Okinawa to establish supply lines for the island invasion.  It was gruesome but succeeds and is then charged with supply chain logistics for his carrier group for the taking of the Japanese mainland.  I only exist because that invasion never happened, as he was on the most forward ship and would have most likely have perished from artillery or aerial attack while the Japanese capacity was still well functioning.  Years later, we found out my wife's grandfather, who like most of those men, didn't walk about his service until the very end of his life.  He was taken off Okinawa (7th ID) by naval transports, not the usual exclusively-troop transport ships of the Army.  I'd like to think both of our grandfathers crossed paths on deck that day and took a deep breath for the invasion of Honshu thankfully never came to pass.  They could go home and start families.  

To tie it back to D-Day.  My father (PO3-U.S. Navy, 1961-1965) knew more about WW2 history than any non-scholar I know.  And I asked him about some of his older relatives who were in Kriegsmarine.  And I'm romanticizing the conversation a bit, but I asked why the German Navy didn't really 'show up' for D-Day?  And he said because of Hugo Boss, the fashion designer.  It was decided that congesting the fleet (surface and sub-surface) in a relatively small part of the channel/coastline would prove futile given the air superiority of the Allies and ability of the Kriegsmarine to eventually launch a counter-assault.  So thousands and thousands of sailors took their ships to port and were administered Heer uniforms designed by Hugo Boss, banded up with conscripted Waffen SS troops from occupied countries (also in Hugo-wear), and put along the coastline in fixed defensive positions to not take out boats but troops by 88's and heavy machine guns.  It worked for an hour and then it didn't.  Many, many German sailors fearing drowning, instead died in pools of blood all across Normandy.  And likely, to a man, wondering why they weren't out at sea with at least a fighting chance at repelling the nautical invasion.  One of 100 things that had to go just right for Operation Overlord.  That Day of Days. 

Edited by YGIFS
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Posted (edited)
On 5/13/2024 at 9:46 AM, BabaYaga said:

I know I bring it up all the god damn time, but everyone needs to read Bodyguard of Lies.  The logistics, intelligence games played, and the cloak/dagger shit that went into the invasion is still mind bottling all these years later.  

Before any invasion could be entertained all German spies/sympathizers had to be identified.  Before they could be identified the Enigma codes had to be broken.  To break the codes you had the infamous Blechley Park smart dudes with Turin.  Once codes were broken, communication lines established, you then had to capture and turn each spy.  One by one.  These double-agents fed Germany mountains of false information.  As the grandfather of "fake news", you had an entire garrison (operation Quicksilver) that create a fake army out of thin air for Patton to command.  Blow-up equipment like rubber tanks/planes. trucks, fake supplies, letters home, training schedules, injury reports, promotions, chow schedules, everything.  All this had the Germans convinced they had a strong understand of who would command the landings and where.  

And all that, and it wasn't the largest landing of the war.  Okinawa was.  

My father was a Sherman tank commander in the 9th Armored Division.   In late August 1944 the 9th took the Queen Mary to England, where they were ultimately stationed across from the Pais-de-Calais as part of Operation Fortitude, the plan to deceive the Germans about our upcoming invasion site. 

They were subsequently sent to Belgium and the sleepy Ardennes so that the new unit could get acclimated.  Oops.  My dad spent December 16-24 holding back the Germans at the small crossroad town of St. Vith - IOW just in time for the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

this photo is an aerial view of the small town showing artillery craters in the snow.

IMG_2706.jpeg.fd38e73a79f35786b2a3da4e5d8da38c.jpeg

Christmas Eve day the 9th were able to meet up with a thin corridor of 82nd airborne and escape to safety after delaying the Germans for a week, completely upsetting their timetable. According to the German general commanding those troops, it was more harmful to their plans than the much publicized Bastogne event.

As a Christmas present the next day, the allies destroyed the entire town and it’s crossroads by Air.  See below.

 

IMG_2237.thumb.jpeg.6a8eb5f52e94e9b70781f17a1be7df75.jpegIMG_2236.thumb.jpeg.dbf71bcc2cb103055f157a48c44ac0aa.jpeg

While it is Belgium, St. Vith was a part of Prussia before World War I, and the people were German speaking. Hitler took back that part of Belgium before World War III, and so all of the townspeople had relatives in the German Wehrmacht.  When I was there in 2019 for the 75th anniversary, there was nothing to indicate the US Army had ever been there. Contrast that with 20 clicks south and Bastogne, that had American flags everywhere, World War II museums and statues of Patton.

One Belgian town was French and welcoming, and the other Belgian town nearby was German and still passively hostile to American visitors for completely destroying their town.

Edited by Gatorubet
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1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:

My father was a Sherman tank commander in the 9th Armored Division.   In late August 1944 the 9th took the Queen Mary to England, where they were ultimately stationed across from the Pais-de-Calais as part of Operation Fortitude, the plan to deceive the Germans about our upcoming invasion site. 

They were subsequently sent to Belgium and the sleepy Ardennes so that the new unit could get acclimated.  Oops.  My dad spent December 16-24 holding back the Germans at the small crossroad town of St. Vith - IOW just in time for the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

this photo is an aerial view of the small town showing artillery craters in the snow.

IMG_2706.jpeg.fd38e73a79f35786b2a3da4e5d8da38c.jpeg

Christmas Eve day the 9th were able to meet up with a thin corridor of 82nd airborne and escape to safety after delaying the Germans for a week, completely upsetting their timetable. According to the German general commanding those troops, it was more harmful to their plans than the much publicized Bastogne event.

As a Christmas present the next day, the allies destroyed the entire town and it’s crossroads by Air.  See below.

 

IMG_2237.thumb.jpeg.6a8eb5f52e94e9b70781f17a1be7df75.jpegIMG_2236.thumb.jpeg.dbf71bcc2cb103055f157a48c44ac0aa.jpeg

While it is Belgium, St. Vith was a part of Prussia before World War I, and the people were German speaking. Hitler took back that part of Belgium before World War III, and so all of the townspeople had relatives in the German Wehrmacht.  When I was there in 2019 for the 75th anniversary, there was nothing to indicate the US Army had ever been there. Contrast that with 20 clicks south and Bastogne, that had American flags everywhere, World War II museums and statues of Patton.

One Belgian town was French and welcoming, and the other Belgian town nearby was German and still passively hostile to American visitors for completely destroying their town.

A couple of 9th AD uniforms from my collection. The officer uniform is from a soldier that received a battlefield commission as a 2nd LT and served in the 193rd Field Artillery.  I am not sure what unit the enlisted 9th AD soldier served in.  I do have the names of both soldiers.

IMG_8936.thumb.JPG.bf027ced997f916d5f84601c4aa9d726.JPGIMG_8937.thumb.JPG.26c99b8d0c1442d172f75caafca16990.JPG

IMG_7894.thumb.JPG.11753f224ec45fe913ec86d9397d65d1.JPGIMG_7899.thumb.JPG.49aa0e7d6f274e792e88c436906b53ef.JPG

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Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, YGIFS said:

My grandfather served in the North Atlantic but moved down to the South Pacific as a Logistics NCO on a Destroyer (his plaque is up at the Nimitz Museum here in the Hill Country /csb).  He literally served against blood relatives in the Kriegsmarine (his father had only come to America just a couple decades before while many others stayed behind in Bavaria and eventually served in various branches of the Wermacht.  Anyway, Grandpa ships off for Okinawa to establish supply lines for the island invasion.  It was gruesome but succeeds and is then charged with supply chain logistics for his carrier group for the taking of the Japanese mainland.  I only exist because that invasion never happened, as he was on the most forward ship and would have most likely have perished from artillery or aerial attack while the Japanese capacity was still well functioning.  Years later, we found out my wife's grandfather, who like most of those men, didn't walk about his service until the very end of his life.  He was taken off Okinawa (7th ID) by naval transports, not the usual exclusively-troop transport ships of the Army.  I'd like to think both of our grandfathers crossed paths on deck that day and took a deep breath for the invasion of Honshu thankfully never came to pass.  They could go home and start families.  

To tie it back to D-Day.  My father (PO3-U.S. Navy, 1961-1965) knew more about WW2 history than any non-scholar I know.  And I asked him about some of his older relatives who were in Kriegsmarine.  And I'm romanticizing the conversation a bit, but I asked why the German Navy didn't really 'show up' for D-Day?  And he said because of Hugo Boss, the fashion designer.  It was decided that congesting the fleet (surface and sub-surface) in a relatively small part of the channel/coastline would prove futile given the air superiority of the Allies and ability of the Kriegsmarine to eventually launch a counter-assault.  So thousands and thousands of sailors took their ships to port and were administered Heer uniforms designed by Hugo Boss, banded up with conscripted Waffen SS troops from occupied countries (also in Hugo-wear), and put along the coastline in fixed defensive positions to not take out boats but troops by 88's and heavy machine guns.  It worked for an hour and then it didn't.  Many, many German sailors fearing drowning, instead died in pools of blood all across Normandy.  And likely, to a man, wondering why they weren't out at sea with at least a fighting chance at repelling the nautical invasion.  One of 100 things that had to go just right for Operation Overlord.  That Day of Days. 

My dad’s older brother had a different, albeit less harrowing experience at the end of the war. He signed up with the Navy and was training for what everyone assumed was going to be the invasion of the Japanese mainland. The bombs were dropped, so he and his shipmates were relegated to stateside “duty” in CA (essentially, waiting to go home). One day as they were eagerly awaiting their discharge, an officer showed up to some sort of gathering and asked for a show of hands of anyone who knew how to type. My uncle was one of the few to raise his hand, so he spent most of the next year typing discharge papers. In his own way, he may have crossed paths with some of the your family members. 

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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In just a few minutes, 80 years ago...Kriegsmarine sub U-731 will be destroyed by two Catalinas near Gibraltar.  It was largely a 'training exercise' to discern how amphibious aircraft will fare against sub-surface U-boats on D-Day.  It works spectacularly.  In addition to other raids, the German Navy is collectively convinced to 'hang back' and simply plan for an arterial defense posture of amphibious infantry later on up and down the coast.  Even, as stated above, the Navy is turned to fixed position infantry.  

Sadly though, with the smell of defeat in the air.  80 years ago around this hour, the SS begins a hasty evacuation of nearly 450,000 Jews from Hungary to concentration camps.  In terms of a ratio of rapidity and fatality, it is arguably the deadliest deportation of Jews in the entire Final Solution.  Hungarian officials from elected officials to military leaders to religious men of the cloth all participate.  Within 2 months, mostly at Auschwitz...about 400,000 Jews are dead.  80 years ago today, the most expeditious mass murder in all of the holocaust begins in earnest.  In Hungary.  And they were complicit.  And 80 years later, they claim the Nazis are still among us.  But just not them.   We have a weird habit of repeating our hypocrisy.  But I guess that's why the word exists.  

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20 minutes ago, mininghorn88 said:

A couple of 9th AD uniforms from my collection. The officer uniform is from a soldier that received a battlefield commission as a 2nd LT and served in the 193rd Field Artillery.  I am not sure what unit the enlisted 9th AD soldier served in.  I do have the names of both soldiers.

IMG_8936.thumb.JPG.bf027ced997f916d5f84601c4aa9d726.JPGIMG_8937.thumb.JPG.26c99b8d0c1442d172f75caafca16990.JPG

 

My father was in the horse cavalry in the late 1930s, in the Second Cavalry Division.  They took the white soldiers from the division and created the 9th Armored.  Like that gentleman, my father started the war as a staff sergeant.  But due to the unfortunate deaths of several lieutenant platoon leaders, my father‘s leadership ability would kick in, and he would lead the platoon out of whatever problem they were in. After the third or fourth time this happened, they said, screw it, and gave him a battlefield commission to 2nd LT.

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33 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

My dad’s older brother had a different, albeit less harrowing experience at the end of the war. He signed up with the Navy and was training for what everyone assumed was going to be the invasion of the Japanese mainland. The bombs were dropped, so he and his shipmates were relegated to stateside “duty” in CA (essentially, waiting to go home). One day as they were eagerly awaiting their discharge, an officer showed up to some sort of gathering and asked for a show of hands of anyone who knew how to type. My uncle was one of the few to raise his hand, so he spent most of the next year typing discharge papers. In his own way, he may have crossed paths with some of the your family members. 

If it was the Bay Area, there's a damn good chance he typed up my Grandfather's discharge papers.  He returned to California to his toddler son and wife in the Autumn of 1945.  They would make there way back to Chicago by train where he worked as chicken farmer before resuming the family trucking business and having a new baby boy, my uncle who would, unlike my great-grandfather, grandfather, and father---Sailors All, jump out of helicopters as part of the Black Horse Armored Cavalry in Vietnam for the U.S. Army. 

I think of that scene at the end of "Band of Brothers" where Maj. Winter's voiceover tells us what the men did after the war.  On the whole, they just resumed regular life, boring jobs, and started families.  Just like our elders.  One day they're about to launch a beach assault on Honshu.  The next day they're typing and hatching chickens.  I asked my grandfather once before he died about what he thought about his service and how his ship was in the lead of his group, facing imminent danger, and I showed him a photograph of the plaque we had made for him at the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific Theater.  And he just grinned and rocked in his chair.  And simply said, "It was just a thing we all got up and did.  I did it so your dad wouldn't have to.  And he served so you wouldn't have to."  May our children enjoy a world of peace and inclusion.  Because the next beach assault will be the last one for mankind.  

 

 

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12 hours ago, YGIFS said:

And he just grinned and rocked in his chair.  And simply said, "It was just a thing we all got up and did.  I did it so your dad wouldn't have to.  And he served so you wouldn't have to."  May our children enjoy a world of peace and inclusion.  Because the next beach assault will be the last one for mankind.  

“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

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A patient of mine, roughly mid-70s gentleman, said he is going to France for D-Day to accompany a friend who is a WW2 vet. The friend is 103 years old and was there during D-Day, so they are going to tour and there are some memorials and such. He said there is a group of vets that gets to do this every year and their trip is sponsored and entirely paid for by American Airlines. Each vet gets to take one friend or family member to help them with travel needs. They have an entire flight from the U.S. to Paris dedicated to this group of guys, and they stay 9 days and have all transportation, hotels, meals, tours, etc. paid for by AA. I think that's pretty damn cool for everyone involved and kuddos to AA for doing it.

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45 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

A patient of mine, roughly mid-70s gentleman, said he is going to France for D-Day to accompany a friend who is a WW2 vet. The friend is 103 years old and was there during D-Day, so they are going to tour and there are some memorials and such. He said there is a group of vets that gets to do this every year and their trip is sponsored and entirely paid for by American Airlines. Each vet gets to take one friend or family member to help them with travel needs. They have an entire flight from the U.S. to Paris dedicated to this group of guys, and they stay 9 days and have all transportation, hotels, meals, tours, etc. paid for by AA. I think that's pretty damn cool for everyone involved and kuddos to AA for doing it.

Follow a few recent/younger GWOT vets on IG.  Last year or two some of those salty old WWII dogs have done static line, tandem jumps over Normandy with recent vets.  Jumped out of C-47's and everything apparently

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I’ve already mentioned my grandfather being on Omaha Beach; however, I was reminded of the following story from my mother.

My grandfather brought back a large nazi flag he cut down from a schoolhouse, 3 cool German soldier knives, and a couple of guns back. 

Apparently, when I was in the 4th grade I brought the flag and knives to show and tell. Mother OCUGolf was not a happy camper when she got the call from the principal. Can’t imagine the trouble I would have gotten in todays climate.

 

RIP Papa. You were the strongest, most brave, kind, and wise man I’ve ever met.

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80 years ago, it is the early morning hours of 16 May in England.  Supreme Allied Command has begun sequestering select troops, sailors, and airmen.  This is done to silo different units so as to contain spread of information.  In a few hours time, the select first group of men will begin intensive training on waterproofing weapons, vehicles, and armor for the beach assault.  Most of them have gone to bed never having seen plastic in their rural lives.  24 hours from now, they will know how to water-seal grenades, heavy machine guns, medical equipment, rations, and other equipment.  None of the assault on the 5 beaches can occur if even 20% of the equipment and weaponry gets water-logged and sinks/jams.  

Again, one of 100 things that must go right for Overlord to be successful.  One word for you men this time, "Plastics."  As fate would have it, the originator of what we know now as 'plastic' (albeit in a different form), Leo Baekeland, dies just ~120 days before D-Day.  But his work will allow the Allies to take Ghent, Belgium where Baekeland's family is still based, also in ~120 days time.  

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12 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

80 years ago, it is the early morning hours of 16 May in England.  Supreme Allied Command has begun sequestering select troops, sailors, and airmen.  This is done to silo different units so as to contain spread of information.  In a few hours time, the select first group of men will begin intensive training on waterproofing weapons, vehicles, and armor for the beach assault.  Most of them have gone to bed never having seen plastic in their rural lives.  24 hours from now, they will know how to water-seal grenades, heavy machine guns, medical equipment, rations, and other equipment.  None of the assault on the 5 beaches can occur if even 20% of the equipment and weaponry gets water-logged and sinks/jams.  

Again, one of 100 things that must go right for Overlord to be successful.  One word for you men this time, "Plastics."  As fate would have it, the originator of what we know now as 'plastic' (albeit in a different form), Leo Baekeland, dies just ~120 days before D-Day.  But his work will allow the Allies to take Ghent, Belgium where Baekeland's family is still based, also in ~120 days time.  

“Plastics”.  The best line from The Graduate.  Not to change the subject from a really good post, 

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Posted (edited)
On 5/15/2024 at 10:54 AM, wild_turkey said:

A patient of mine, roughly mid-70s gentleman, said he is going to France for D-Day to accompany a friend who is a WW2 vet. The friend is 103 years old and was there during D-Day, so they are going to tour and there are some memorials and such. He said there is a group of vets that gets to do this every year and their trip is sponsored and entirely paid for by American Airlines. Each vet gets to take one friend or family member to help them with travel needs. They have an entire flight from the U.S. to Paris dedicated to this group of guys, and they stay 9 days and have all transportation, hotels, meals, tours, etc. paid for by AA. I think that's pretty damn cool for everyone involved and kuddos to AA for doing it.

Delta Airlines does it too. Right now they are showing a short 3 minute and an 8 minute clip of WW2 vets going to Normandy on their in-flight entertainment. It is amazing how dusty it can get at 35,000 feet.

Edited by mininghorn88
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