Remembering D-Day. In a few years, there will be no one with living memories of that war.
11 thoughts on “Sixty-Six Years”
Comments are closed.
Remembering D-Day. In a few years, there will be no one with living memories of that war.
Comments are closed.
Not very many, but it will be a good while before the last one dies. The last WWI veteran died last year I think.
Thus be it ever
when free men shall stand,
between their loved homes
and the war’s desolation.
Francis Scott Key, 1814 – upon witnessing the naval bombardment of Baltimore.
Pretty decent fellow, that Key – even if he was a lawyer.
My dad arrived in France D plus three. God willing, he will be ninety on the second of July.
God bless him Puckett. Lost my WWII vet father almost 8 years ago.
Happy Birthday in advance to your dad, Mike.
Condolences, Cecil. Me too.
R.I.P. Capt. Harry Scott Eagleson, USAAF (Ret.) 1909 – 1995
Veteran of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France.
Please forward my thank you for his service to your Father Mike. I lost mine in February. 2 Marine tours in the pacific.
R.I.P PFC Gaylord S. Thomson, USMC, 11/16/23 – 2/2/10.
Makes me think of my dad, too. He served as an artillery officer in WWII in Europe, again in Korea, and taught for many years in the Command and General Staff School in the Reserves. I always hoped he and my mom would be able to go back to Europe for a visit and see the countries he helped liberate, but he died before they ever made the trip.
R.I.P. Col. William E. Hensley, U.S. Army, 1921-1995
Never…was so much owed by so many to so few.
My dad served in the RAF for a while. Given that he was 12 at the end of WWII it was unlikely that he would have served there, but he might have been called to Korea I suppose. In the event he wasn’t.
I think that we all ought to honour those who served but were not called upon to fight, as well as those who fought.
Two years ago, I happened to be passing my town’s local war memorial when they were having a Remembrance Day ceremony with a fair number of rather old veterans of some war or other – not WWII, I think, as they weren’t old enough for that. I asked one of them whether he would do me the honour of letting me shake his hand; it was the first time in years, for him. For shame.
@Fletcher: I always try to thank people in uniform, but I’ve been even more deliberate about it when I am out with my son who is five. It’ll be a long time, I trust, before he wants to do it or he can get over his shyness, but I imagine in the long-run, he’ll see that he should.
Yes, we should never miss a chance to honor their service.
My dad, Cpl. Leo Matula, (1916 – 1998) was in the 7th Armored Division, from May 1944 until the end of the war, including the drive across France and the Battle of the Bulge. He was home on leave in route to the Pacific when they dropped the A-bombs. The 7th Armored Division was to be part of the invasion of the main Japanese island, but of course it wasn’t needed, thank goodness. Four of his 5 brothers also served in the military during the war.