Daughter honors father’s memory at 75th anniversary of ‘The Other D-Day’ in France

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Daughter honors father’s memory at 75th anniversary of ‘The Other D-Day’ in France

Portrait of Ginni Field, reflected in a mirror, holding the U.S. Army uniform of her late father Richard “Dick” Field. On the wall behind her are some of the many awards and honors from his combat experiences with the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion in Operation Dragoon and the Battle of the Bulge, among others.
(Charlie Neuman/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ginni Field, 68, of Oceanside is in Europe retracing her late father’s steps as a World War II paratrooper in Operation Dragoon and the Battle of the Bulge
By Pam Kragen
Aug. 6, 2019
5 AM

For nearly 20 years until his death three years ago at age 91, World War II paratrooper Richard “Dick” Field of Oceanside made a regular pilgrimage back to the battlefields of France and Belgium, where he fought beside and lost most of his buddies in the Army’s 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion.

For many of those years, Field was accompanied on the trips by his daughter, Ginni Field. The Oceanside real estate broker went with her dad to see firsthand the gratitude the French people showered on him; to see his joy in reuniting with old friends; to manage the many interview request he’d receive as one of the battalion’s last survivors; and to support him as his health declined.

On Friday, she’ll return once again to Europe in her dad’s honor for the 75th anniversary of the day he parachuted into a vineyard on the Valbourges estate near La Motte, France. On Aug. 15, 1944, Field was one of 10,000 Allied airborne troops who participated in Operation Dragoon, the successful campaign to liberate Southern France from German occupation. The invasion, which occurred 10 weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy, would become known as “the other D-Day.”


Photographs of Richard "Dick" Field of Oceanside taken in 1944, when he was serving in the 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion in World War II, left, and in 2010, when he returned to Belgium to visit the graves of his fellow paratroopers. Field passed in 2016 at age 91.
(Charlie Neuman/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Article at: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/story/2019-08-05/daughter-honors-fathers-memory-at-75th-anniversary-of-the-other-d-day-in-france

This newspaper has a reasonable amount of fine articles in this area.