June 6, 1944

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entropychaser

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1261Truckie said:
And may those who also participated and are no longer with us Rest in Peace. Continued comfort to those who are still with us.
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My boss in the late 1970's was a member of the 82nd Airborne and helped start the festivities at 0400 hours landing in France in a glider behind Utah Beach. Talk about the hard way to become an eyewitness to history! RIP Mike D.
 
grumpy grizzly

grumpy grizzly

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entropychaser said:
My boss in the late 1970's was a member of the 82nd Airborne and helped start the festivities at 0400 hours landing in France in a glider behind Utah Beach. Talk about the hard way to become an eyewitness to history! RIP Mike D.
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I do not know what requires more courage, leaping from an aircraft into enemy occupied territory as an airborne soldier or approaching the beach in your landing craft and hear machine gun bullets rake the front of it knowing full well it would be lowered into that rain of fire. Thankfully on June 6th courage was everywhere with those men who just wanted to do their job and help Freedom once again reign.
 
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entropychaser

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grumpy grizzly said:
I do not know what requires more courage, leaping from an aircraft into enemy occupied territory as an airborne soldier or approaching the beach in your landing craft and hear machine gun bullets rake the front of it knowing full well it would be lowered into that rain of fire. Thankfully on June 6th courage was everywhere with those men who just wanted to do their job and help Freedom once again reign.
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I would refer you to the writing of the great A.J. Liebling, the New Yorker Magazine war correspondent. He was hiding on the fantail of a U.S. Coast Guard manned LST grounded on the Easy Red Sector of Omaha Beach with non-stop automatic weapons fire going by on both sides. It has been described as a legendary eyewitness report.
 
grumpy grizzly

grumpy grizzly

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entropychaser said:
I would refer you to the writing of the great A.J. Liebling, the New Yorker Magazine war correspondent. He was hiding on the fantail of a U.S. Coast Guard manned LST grounded on the Easy Red Sector of Omaha Beach with non-stop automatic weapons fire going by on both sides. It has been described as a legendary eyewitness report.
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Opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" illustrate that.
 
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ifd100

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D-Day Unfortunately we are currently in a stage of the dumbing down of our future the children of this country, schools are too busy teaching Critical race theory, and that men can be women and women can be men!!!!! To all who where there and to those that lost their lives during one of the greatest military operations of all time, may god be with you and your families!!!!
 
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Atlas

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I had the honor to work with a man who took part in the beach landing. He became the Assistant Chief for Fire Operations of the Air Base where I was assigned. With all the hours that we spent together in the fire station, never once did he mention anything about serving in WWII or even being shot. When the base closed, I went overseas for a year & our paths crossed again when I returned state-side. He was waiting for me with open arms at SAC Hq. With only a few months left to serve he attempted to have me transferred into his unit & make a career out of the Air Force in the Emergency Management field. Like a fool, I turned the offer down in 1967.

Many years went by & I never heard from him. We reconnected around 1999 & it was then I learned that he had been shot twice during the Normandy Landing as I sat in his living room. He was still carrying some of that lead with in him until the day he died.

Yes, he became one of my hero's.
 
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Lebby

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Atlas said:
I had the honor to work with a man who took part in the beach landing. He became the Assistant Chief for Fire Operations of the Air Base where I was assigned. With all the hours that we spent together in the fire station, never once did he mention anything about serving in WWII or even being shot. When the base closed, I went overseas for a year & our paths crossed again when I returned state-side. He was waiting for me with open arms at SAC Hq. With only a few months left to serve he attempted to have me transferred into his unit & make a career out of the Air Force in the Emergency Management field. Like a fool, I turned the offer down in 1967.

Many years went by & I never heard from him. We reconnected around 1999 & it was then I learned that he had been shot twice during the Normandy Landing as I sat in his living room. He was still carrying some of that lead with in him until the day he died.

Yes, he became one of my hero's.
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The Greatest Generation
 
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CFDMarshal

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I did a D-Day/Battle of the Bulge tour in 2011 and we toured all beaches and we were on Omaha Beach on 6/6. I cannot put into words the feeling that I had that day. If possible I would recommend all that could make a visit to that hallowed ground.
 
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entropychaser

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CFDMarshal said:
I did a D-Day/Battle of the Bulge tour in 2011 and we toured all beaches and we were on Omaha Beach on 6/6. I cannot put into words the feeling that I had that day. If possible I would recommend all that could make a visit to that hallowed ground.
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Almost as good is the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific- the Punchbowl in Honolulu. Ernie Pyle is buried there. You will find that 1923, 1924, 1925 were common years to be born.
 
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CFDMarshal

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entropychaser said:
Almost as good is the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific- the Punchbowl in Honolulu. Ernie Pyle is buried there. You will find that 1923, 1924, 1925 were common years to be born.
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We went to a German Cemetery in Normandy and if you were born in 1922 or 1923 you were likely killed. Oldest I saw was 64, the youngest was 14!
 
grumpy grizzly

grumpy grizzly

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entropychaser said:
Almost as good is the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific- the Punchbowl in Honolulu. Ernie Pyle is buried there. You will find that 1923, 1924, 1925 were common years to be born.
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My son was stationed on the island of Ie Shima off the coast of Okinowa with the Marines, they use it as a weapons test range as well as some special ops training. That is where Ernie Pyle was killed, every year on the anniversary of his death they had a ceremony at a monument to him.
 
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