Rememberence....D-Day

[Diablo25]

Again, the History teacher in me....June 6, 1944 the world changed. Take a minute to remember the guys who sacrificed that day (and many others).

[RobVarak]

Should be a national holiday, IMO.

[Brando70]

One of the greatest displays of bravery in our history. To climb into those boats, land on the beach, and rush headlong into those fortifications...it is awe-inspiring.

[Danimal]

I thought you guys made a thread for my birthday

In all seriousness this time of year usually makes me bust out the BoB blu-ray

[Brando70]

I always thought this Walter Rosenblum photo said so much about that day. So much relief and grief packed into one image.

http://www.gallerym.com/work.cfm?ID=450

[TCrouch]

I was watching the NASCAR race on Memorial Day weekend, and they had Hall of Fame inductee Bud Moore giving a long interview in some of the pre-race clips. He was one of the guys who landed on the beach, and even now, so many years later, it had him pausing to take a breath and compose himself from time to time. He inserted some humorous bits, like how everybody thought it was an exercise until they loaded them into the boats. Guess they couldn't have them all thinking about impending doom the next morning or something.

But getting the stones to even get out of those things and hit the water is impossible. I don't know how they did it.

[webdanzer]

But getting the stones to even get out of those things and hit the water is impossible. I don't know how they did it.

Yeah, I'm always bowled over by this, and have expressed similar sentiments often.

I don't believe I could have done it.

[Jackdog]

http://news.yahoo.com/d-day-little-know ... 00446.html

[Naples39]

http://news.yahoo.com/d-day-little-know ... 00446.html

2. Many of the "German" defenders weren't even German. The Nazis conscripted a number of non-Germans (Poles, Belgians, Dutch) and East Europeans to serve as coastal units.

This is actually captured in Saving Private Ryan, when 2 American soldiers stop some blathering 'german' troops, and shoot them saying "What? I didn't catch that." It's never revealed to the audience, but they were actually saying "Please don't shoot me, I am not German, I am Czech, I didn't kill anyone, I am Czech!" in Czech.

Regardless, what happened that day is really beyond most people's imagination today.

[Danimal]

http://news.yahoo.com/d-day-little-know ... 00446.html

"Snake Plissken I thought you were dead?"

Nice to see you JD!

[pk500]

One phrase bounces through my head every year on June 6: "What balls."

Salute!

[Jackdog]

http://news.yahoo.com/d-day-little-know ... 00446.html

"Snake Plissken I thought you were dead?"

Nice to see you JD!

Hope all is well with you!

PK...couldn't agree more.
Naples...Great observation.

[Gurantsu]

I know he wasn't involved in D-Day, but dates like this always remind me of my grandfather, who was a right waist gunner on a B-29 out of Tinian in the Pacific theater. How regular guys like him, who was just my "pop pop", would strap themselves into these machines or climb into those landing boats and take the fight to the enemy just boggles my mind. Having been in the military I often wonder how I would have reacted in similar circumstances. I like to think I would do well, but to be honest I'll never know, and as PK has said, what balls. And from a bunch of guys we all just knew as grandpa, pop pop, grandpop, the regular guys who helped us grow up if they were lucky enough to survive.

And I'm always reminded at times like this of a story about my pop pop that my dad told me after he died, while I was out at sea in the Pacific (I was allowed to leave the ship early in Hong Kong so I could go ashore and call home after the news). The only time he ever got upset when talking about the war was when he told my dad of how, after having cloud cover over both their primary and secondary targets on a bombing run, his whole wing unleashed their bomb load on some small Japanese fishing village, since a B-29 couldn't land with it's bombs onboard. No military targets, but you couldn't land with the bombs so you put them on the enemy. I'm actually tearing up as I type this; for the horror of war, for what my grandfather had to do as part of his mission, and for all the innocent people who get caught up in this craziness. He was just the guy I would rake leaves with, and eat ice cream with after dinner. And he would have rather dropped the bombs into the sea on the way back to Tinian; but war is a complete and total mess, and as a soldier you do what you have to do, even though I know many who have never served would never understand.

And as strange as it may seem, this one thing is what makes me the proudest about him, even with Navy Crosses and a couple of Medal Of Honors in my family tree. Not the diary he kept about the Zero's that attacked his flight; not the flak he wrote about being shot at him while he was part of the firebombing of Tokyo (while on leave from Japan he said he saw Tokyo too, from 10,000 feet), but the fact that in the middle of one of humanities greatest tragedies, he still had compassion for another human being, regardless of who they were. I'd hate to think that we ever lose that, no matter who our enemies turn out to be.

So that's what days like this always mean to me. Our grandfathers did what they had to do not because they wanted to fight, but because they had enough compassion for other men to be willing to fight.

[pk500]

Wonderful post, Grant. Thanks for sharing those thoughts.

[Macca00]

Just wanted to second PK's comment. Great post, Grant - thank you for sharing.

[Diablo25]

Wonderful post, Grant. Thanks for sharing those thoughts.

Co Signed. Great stuff.

[icvu42]

My dad is 88 years old. He was drafted into the army at age 18 and he landed on the beaches of Normandy I believe on June 8 and spent the next couple of years fighting throughout Europe. I remember in high school I had to do a report on WWII and I asked him about his experiences and he told me about being in gunfire and bombs exploding around him, sitting in foxholes, etc. Then I asked if he had any gear or stuff from the war, and he told me that the second he was discharged he threw all that stuff away. When I asked why he didn't keep it, I'll never forget his respose. He said, "Those few years were hell. Why in the world would I want any memories of that?"

Rick

[RobVarak]

When I asked why he didn't keep it, I'll never forget his respose. He said, "Those few years were hell. Why in the world would I want any memories of that?"

Rick

That was my Dad's attitude toward his service in Vietnam. He went a step further and utterly dripped with contempt at the ideas of hunting, guns or camping. "I've fired enough rifles and slept in enough goddamned tents." Can't argue with that.

The only thing he kept was an ammo box for .30 MG ammo that he used as a shoeshine box. Odd, but pretty cool. I still covet that thing and remind him regularly that he hasn't shined a pair of his own shoes since the early-80's.

The other souvenir he has is a right arm that won't fully extend at the elbow. I wouldn't make light of it except that it's his own fault. He broke the arm in a Huey crash. They put him in a cast and stuck him on light duty, but a cast in the jungle is about as unpleasant as you can imagine. After a week of being rebuffed at his attempts to get the docs to take the cast off he walked up to a tree and shattered it into oblivion.

If I didn't look so much like him, I'd never believed we shared any genetic components at all.

[Brando70]

Great stuff, guys.

Both my grandfathers served in the Navy in the Pacific, and both my dad and father-in-law were in Vietnam and saw a lot of combat. The stuff they went through at such a young age is almost inconceivable.

It's interesting how they all dealt with it afterward. My paternal grandfather rarely talked about serving, and my dad is the same way. My maternal grandfather used to talk about it in a way that was almost fond, that amid the horror of it all, it was this life-changing experience. And my father-in-law talks about Vietnam a lot, but in this detached, historical way without a lot of emotion to the stories.

[bdunn13]

Thanks for posting guys - enjoyed reading all of that.

I will write what I can - though it is not too much.


My dad was in Korea, but never talked about it and I never asked - he passed away in 2005. I am pretty sure he loaded the big guns on a destroyer ( I don't know the size). He had false teeth for his top two fronts where one gun kicked back and knocked out his teeth.


His brother was in WWII on a destroyer (he was a cook) in the Pacific. I remember one story he told me about when he landed or docked somewhere in Saipan.

Since he was a cook, I don't think he ever really saw the light of day. It was his time to eat / break and he wanted to get out of the damn kitchen. So he asked some other guys on the ship if it was safe, and they said "Yes." He then was walking off on to the dock with his food and he started hearing "ping, ping..... ping ping...." (bullets hitting the destroyer) He went back to the kitchen pretty quickly.

I think he enjoyed cooking the rest of his life ( he passed away about 2 years ago). He also liked to smoke and I am sure they allowed smoking on the ships back then (even when cooking).

I remember my sister telling me she ate some of his oatmeal cookies one time and they tasted like an ash tray. I bet he dropped a ton of ashes in the food he was preparing back in the 40s.

God bless them all,
BD

[XXXIV]

http://news.yahoo.com/d-day-little-know ... 00446.html

"Snake Plissken I thought you were dead?"

Nice to see you JD!

Echoing that thought. Very good to see you posting.

Great stuff guys.