Operation Overlord: Invasion of Normandy

Great color pics here.
http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/D-Day-The-Invasion-of-Normandy-in-color-7965282.php

 

72 years ago today... I see where a flag from one of the first LC's in is up for auction. It's owner was the captain of the boat and has kept it all these years.

 

I know it was just a movie, but Saving Private Ryan gives some really good perspective on what it would be like to be on the first boats when that gate dropped. Just jaw dropping.


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My grandaddy signed up for the 101st but his paperwork got screwed up and he ended up in another outfit (eventually the 11th AB). My granny said he was pretty upset he didn't make in but later said he was probably lucky he didn't.

 

Mine jumped with 1/508, 82nd. Ended up losing an arm and being a POW until the British broke out later that summer. He said until the day he passed that he'd been living on borrowed time ever since.

 

There were men on both fronts (air and sea) that didn't have a chance. Amazing how any of them made it through it.

 

Makes me want to go find a Bernie Sanders supporter and punch them in the throat.

 

[video=youtube;h5p5j_K0CsY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5p5j_K0CsY[/video]

This is the scene in Saving Private Ryan I was talking about. Skip forward to about 2 minutes and watch when they open those boat doors for the first time...

 

That's why those men are referred to as The Greatest Generation.

 

When I saw SPR at the theater several older men got up and left at that point... I saw the same thing happen during Platoon. Too real. The sound of those MG42's after all those decades still rung in their ears...

 

Awful.

 

It was heartbreaking. I never have begrudged an older man in traffic piddling along at 10mph or more below the speed limit because I envision them as 18 year olds storming some godforsaken beach in Europe or the Pacific and it immediately humbles me.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman by chance at a rest stop in NC a few years ago. He was wearing a D-Day Veteran cap, and it was the end of May. I thanked him for his service and asked if I could shake his hand. He stuck out his hand and said he didn't deserve thanks as he never made it off the beach. He was shot and was lucky enough to be drug back to one of the landing craft to be evacuated. He said the men that sacrificed their lives were the the ones that deserved the thanks. He just kept talking. I can't remember how many years it was since D-Day, but he said that X years ago, we were getting ready to go. He told me that he and his buddies were scared to death, but they knew the job had to be done. He talked to me for a good 30 minutes about various things about his time in the military & about the D-Day training & the actual event. We both had to go our seperate ways. His family was waiting on him, and my friends were waiting on me. But as he walked away, his frail 80+ year-old body steadied by a cane as he shuffled towards his car, I knew that I just had the privilege of talking to and shaking the hand of a true hero. Yes, he didn't see himself as such, but he and all those that fought against fascist tyranny in WWII embody the word, hero, as much as any individuals ever have even if he/they didn't see themselves as such. We are pretty loose sometimes with applying the title of hero, but he and all who have fought for or served our nation deserve the title as much as, probably moreso, than any individuals we bestow with the title, hero. He has probably passed on now, but he had a tremendous impact on my life. The impact wasn't just during our chance encounter. He and the other heroes of D-Day and WWII had a tremendous impact on my life long before I was even born.

God bless all these brave men & women.

 

Well said JV. There is a D Day vet that goes to our church and Indidn't know it for years... He was just honored at the Infantry Museum in Fort Benning this week. I also had the honor several years ago of giving a unit history book (I collect them, they are kind of like a HS or college yearbook, but for military units) to a man who was. B-24 crewman shot down over Ploesti and spent the remainder of the war as a guest of the Germans at Stalag 13... It was autographed by his commanding officer who was a MOH winner. He never got his copy because they had run out by the time he was repatriated and he never bothered to get one. I was glad to give it to him as he died a year afterward... He asked me if I wanted it back upon his death and Intold him no... He donated it to the 8th Air Force Museum in Pooler Ga... A fact for which I am eternally grateful.

 

That's awesome.

 

Moving forward at the clang of that door opening isn't legend, it's the stuff that legend aspires to be.

 

Well put.


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Make that "HEROS".

 

There are many veterans that support him. I think you may be making an unfair and broad generalization

 

I don't feel that Sanders has the same scorn for the military that the Democratic leadership does. I think he's a nincompoop but I feel he's genuine, which plays well. My dad is a fan, don't know how he would feel about getting throat punched for it