Today is the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion of the Allied Forces to rid the world of tyranny. Last April I had the amazing privilege to visit Normandy, and visited the graves of 9,387 brave soldiers who gave their lives for this cause.
Me and my son standing on Omaha Beach, Normandy:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y177/Lotsokids/Normandy%202014/Omaha_monument_zps2cab01bf.jpg)
My Dad landed there. He was a tank commander in the Canadian army. Just turned 90 yrs. in April and still won't talk about it. Big R
Thanks for posting this Mark. I hope to someday walk those same beaches and pay my respects. I suspect without those brave men, there would be a lot more German spoken in the world to a much less free population. I was out at 0620 raising my flag in honor of them.
Quote from: big r on June 06, 2014, 08:30:37 AM
My Dad landed there. He was a tank commander in the Canadian army. Just turned 90 yrs. in April and still won't talk about it. Big R
Please tell him "Thanks" for me!
Ed
+ 1 thanks from me 2... my poor old grandfather on my fathers side ended up in new guinea fighting the japs,
actually got shot, he wouldnt talk about it either,
My Uncle Ted was there as a medic, from what my father said. (He was a scout in the 34th ID's Mechanized Cavalry Troop in Italy; Monte Cassino, Anzio, Rome, etc.)
They never talked about it either.
(Although there'd be some surreal, funny arguments sometimes after dinner about who should have won the war! (My mother is german. She lost her home twice to the RAF, and had to evade the Russians.) :pardon:
My wife's grandfather was there and as they prepared to hit the beach a private handed him a letter and a picture of a girl he left behind. Well the grandfather made it and the private did not . When the war was over he went to idaho and delivered the letter to the girl and in time married her.
He was a great man and achieved many successes in his lifetime.
He has passed away now but on this day every year he would put on the uniform and go the VFW and that was the only time he talked about the war.
My dad flew back to back patrols with 461 squadron Sunderlands.
Ned
My mother and father met at a battlefield hospital in France. She a Lt. RN from Lafayette PA he a Capt. Logistics Officer from Denton Texas. I'll never forget the debt that we all owe to their generation.
Quote from: ken65 on June 06, 2014, 10:37:57 AM
+ 1 thanks from me 2... my poor old grandfather on my fathers side ended up in new guinea fighting the japs,
actually got shot, he wouldnt talk about it either,
My dad was in New Guinea also with the Army Engineers. He didn't talk much about his time there and I never pushed assuming he probably didn't have many memories fit to share with the family. He had a scar on his forehead that he told us kids that he got from a wild boar.
An amazing generation of men and women. Wish we had more like them these days.