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Remembering D-Day

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PzLdr:
My Pop was the smartest man I ever met. Almost illiterate [born here, he grew up in Portugal, then came back], and poorly educated, but SMART. And like many of the greatest generation, Pop wound up in the Army. But he did so in 1940, because although he was a patriot [years later he thought "America! Love it or leave it!" gave slackers too much choice], he also needed a job.

And four years later, on a June morning, my Dad, a combat engineer with the 4th ID went ashore at a place designated Utah Beach [actually they landed a mile or more from where they were supposed to, and where Germans waited for them]. And from there he went to St. Mere Eglese, Cherbourg, eventually St. Lo, and on to Paris, the Huertgen Forest, the Rhine and Bavaria.

But it was always D-Day he remembered most. Like most vets, his war stories were about the funny things, not the horrors, and his D-Day remembrances were laced with as much comedy as he could come up with. But this humble man grasped he had done [along with thousands of others], something stupendous, and of historical import. And he never forgot it. The only book he read, cover to cover, was "Crusade in Europe". The 4th Infantry Division was HIS. And when they hit a rough patch at one point in Viet Nam [my war], Pop took it as a personal insult.

Pop passed in 2001, but the lessons he taught me by word, deed and example are with me still. So today, some 70 years after he waded ashore on the Normandy coast, I think of my Pop- and all the Dads, sons and brothers who waded with them. We may never see their like again. And we should remember them - and what they did.

mountaineer:
Amen, PL.  :patriot:

mystery-ak:
What a nice tribute to your Pop, PzLdr! :patriot:

DCPatriot:
My father's brother..."Uncle Whitey" stormed the Normandy cliffs.

I was just a child, but I recall my parents telling me that he would NEVER speak about that day...that he would start to visibly shake and his eyes would tear up.

Bigun:

--- Quote from: PzLdr on June 06, 2014, 12:01:00 pm ---My Pop was the smartest man I ever met. Almost illiterate [born here, he grew up in Portugal, then came back], and poorly educated, but SMART. And like many of the greatest generation, Pop wound up in the Army. But he did so in 1940, because although he was a patriot [years later he thought "America! Love it or leave it!" gave slackers too much choice], he also needed a job.

And four years later, on a June morning, my Dad, a combat engineer with the 4th ID went ashore at a place designated Utah Beach [actually they landed a mile or more from where they were supposed to, and where Germans waited for them]. And from there he went to St. Mere Eglese, Cherbourg, eventually St. Lo, and on to Paris, the Huertgen Forest, the Rhine and Bavaria.

But it was always D-Day he remembered most. Like most vets, his war stories were about the funny things, not the horrors, and his D-Day remembrances were laced with as much comedy as he could come up with. But this humble man grasped he had done [along with thousands of others], something stupendous, and of historical import. And he never forgot it. The only book he read, cover to cover, was "Crusade in Europe". The 4th Infantry Division was HIS. And when they hit a rough patch at one point in Viet Nam [my war], Pop took it as a personal insult.

Pop passed in 2001, but the lessons he taught me by word, deed and example are with me still. So today, some 70 years after he waded ashore on the Normandy coast, I think of my Pop- and all the Dads, sons and brothers who waded with them. We may never see their like again. And we should remember them - and what they did.

--- End quote ---

My father, who left us in 1995,  was on Guadalcanal until a Jap knee mortar round  filled his back with good ole USA scrap iron (shrapnel) and he had to be evacuated. Later he wound up on Okinawa luckily this time after most of the heavy fighting was done there.

Several of my uncles on my mother's side made the D-day invasion either as grunts who waded ashore or as airborne infantry dropped in behind the lines.  The always kind of hung together at family gathers when I was young and never spoke about their war experiences around us kids but that all changed when I came home from Vietnam and became a full member of that group. They all, to a man, suffered greatly for this country and today I cannot discuss what I feel for them and all of their brothers  in arms without getting very emotional and, at the same time, mad as HELL at what we have let this nation that they gave SO much to preserve become!

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