Day of days

B

bamaranger

New member
It was nearly suppertime 'till I realized the date.....6June.....D-Day. I am of such an age that I fortunate enough to have known men who jumped or landed on the beaches of France. All were humble, adjusted (by all observation) good men, the stereotypical citizen soldiers. Without their bravery, the world might well be a different place. Thanks and God Bless them all, and their fallen brothers.

Tomorrow, D+1, I will rip a clip through the Garand in their memory.
 
When I was a lad, one of our family friends, and a neighbor was Len Murray, who had been one of the paratroopers who dropped on St. Mere-Eglise, and survived. Later in the war, he spent the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne.

Never spoke much about the war, other than to basically say "I was there" and that he wasn't the guy hanging off the bell tower in the Longest Day movie.

Great guy, huge laugh, at a few inches over 6foot, he wasn't your typical paratrooper, but he had been one.

He favored the Winchester Model 70, .270 Win, and would sight in every fall with my Dad at our place.

The very last of those men will be gone soon, we won't see their like again. They did what their country called on them to do, because it needed doing.

The world would be a vastly different place today if they hadn't.
 
Do remember that D-Day veterans includes everyone who was there that day, not just the guys who stormed the beaches, or jumped out of airplanes.

Everyone on all of the ships, from the Captains to the cooks, and the pilots and aircrew in the planes are counted, and should be.
 
I received "Blood Wings" from Red King (mid 80's) -- we didn't have the internet back then and he only talked for a few minutes -- it was years later that i learned more about his history. I met several famous military people during my Army career - BUT - it seems like i didn't know how much respect and awe I should have had because i was uninformed. I've been on Army funeral details. I visit Arlington Cemetary every year (people i knew when they were alive are interred there). I've read many history books on our wars and conflicts. You can't understand what any of it is like unless you have rolled through a free fire zone -- and even then, it isn't the same as during WWII, because then you didn't rotate out after a set period of time -- you stayed in the fight until it was over. There will never be another "Greatest Generation". I'm not going to get political other than to say - Vote. Maybe, years in the future, we can get Great Leaders again in the US.
 
I was eight years old when the war ended. A few months later some men stopped at my paternal grandparents home. They were my Grandmother's nephews, back home and safe. They didn't talk much and after spending the night and having breakfast headed on down the road to their home in San Jose California. I only saw them a few times during the years before I left for my military service. imagine they're all gone now. :(
Paul B,
 
My dad was USN on a LST on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He was pulled from below deck to man a 50 while they were being fired upon. He was also in on N. Africa, Sicily, Philippines, and Papua/New Guinea. Certain things he never talked much about - D-Day was one of them
 
My grandma's cousin was from San Francisco and landed on Omaha Beach. When I see the D day footage of a big guy getting dragged on his knees onto the shore from the Ocean, I kinda think it's him. Regardless, he fought his way through the battle of the Bulge and carried shrapnel in his leg the rest of his life. He never fired a weapon after the war to my knowledge. A lot of veterans had seen enough death from combat they became pacifists later in life. At times even American GI's were ordered to take no prisoners and shoot the enemy even if they had their hands up and tried to surrender. They were at times ordered to kill the enemy and just keep moving during an attack.
 
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