73 years ago today allied troops landed on Normandy beaches which began the downfall of Nazi Germany on the western front.
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73 years ago today allied troops landed on Normandy beaches which began the downfall of Nazi Germany on the western front.
Last edited by condorjohn; 06-06-2017 at 01:52 PM.
Fact: Some people are alive simply because it's illegal to kill them.
My great Uncle John was there.
You can miss fast & you can miss a lot, but only hits count.
My FIL was there as a navigator on one of the troop ships. Because of him I have several charts and maps from that operation, some that I have never seen anywhere else. Some VERY cool pieces of history.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
My ex-wife's uncle Pat made the invasion as an 18 year old soldier with a Springfield in his hands. He survived Normandy and a couple of weeks beyond, then got creased across the face with a German bullet, and ended up as a pow in a German field hospital. Soon thereafter he was passed over in a prisoner exchange and rotated back to the states missing an eye. He never bore any animosity toward his former enemies; I think he was just glad to be alive. He lived a long and full life.
My great uncle Clarence was there. He landed at Omaha and fought through some of the worst the Germans had to throw at him. He earned a silver Star and a stack of other metals when he volunteered to lay a mine field under heavy enemy fire. He loved to talk about the war, mostly before he landed and at the end. He spent the tail end of the war at one of Hitler's bunkers in the Alps, riding adolfs horses and drinking from the elite Nazi booze stash. He always said it was quite a sight to see all those GIs getting tanked on 100 year old French brandy and wine. Unfortunately alzheimer's took him a few years ago, even in the end he was a solider. He sat by the door of the nursing home with a toy drill they gave him, holding it like a gun, "guarding the wounded" he said. He was a good man and the whole family misses him dearly.
It really gets to me when not only late teenagers but adults as well think of today as just another day in June!Robert
Thank you Thank you
The Greats Generation were my teachers!
Thanks Uncle Chuck and all those who held down the home front.
LOYALTY ABOVE ALL ELSE, EXCEPT HONOR
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE MEMBER
I feel my parent's generation 65uly EARNRN the title of the "Greatest Generation". Over the years, I have known many who were there on June 6th - and several who parachuted into France the night before. None of them would talk much about it but I'm sure they "re-lived" it many times in their nightmares. May God bless each and everyone of them and it is up to us all to never let future generation forget what they did.
When I see old footage of those guys getting off the landing craft with bullets whizzing at them from everywhere I just can't imagine how I would have reacted, weather or not I would have had the cajonies.
Fact: Some people are alive simply because it's illegal to kill them.
Had a cousin that served with Patton`s 3rd army from the Kasserine Pass to the Battle of the Bulge in Shermans.Got his feet froze and sent home.Often said that he would`nt do it again for all the tea in China,but would`nt have missed it for the world.Hell on Earth from start to finish.Had some tales to tell.Some funny.Some so sad that they would bring tears.He`s gone now and greatly missed.God bless the"Greatest Generation".God bless Cousin Frank.
Leo
People never lie so much as after a hunt,during a war,or before an election.
Otto von Bismarck
Thanks for posting
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same......." - Ronald Reagan
"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived." - George Patton
The second amendment is a nail on which hangs a picture of freedom - member Alex 4x4 Tver, Russia
Those guys bravery, guts, fortitude or whatever you could call it, humbles me every time I think about it, and especially on D-Day every year as it rolls around.
It was just amazing and awe inspiring what they did.
Those guys, and damn few of them left sadly were really and truly the Greatest Generation I think. And it makes me damn proud of this country.
"Them that don't know him won't like him and them that do sometimes won't know how to take him, he ain't wrong he's just different and his pride won't let him do things to make you think he's right"
Ed Bruce
Powerful.....
https://youtu.be/77f3AV3IZw4
I sure wish I could understand that young lady. I could only pick up a phrase here and there!Originally Posted by rondog
I turned off TV and the wife couldn't understand her either
LOYALTY ABOVE ALL ELSE, EXCEPT HONOR
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE MEMBER
It's a song called The Longest Day by an English metal band named Iron Maiden. The kids are students of a music academy in Ohio.
The Longest Day"
In the gloom the gathering storm abates
In the ships gimlet eyes await
The call to arms to hammer at the gates
To blow them wide throw evil to its fate
All summers long the drills to build the machine
To turn men from flesh and blood to steel
From paper soldiers to bodies on the beach
From summer sands to Armageddon's reach
Overlord your master not your god
The enemy coast dawning grey with scud
These wretched souls puking shaking fear
To take a bullet for those who sent them here
The world's alight the cliffs erupt in flame
No escape remorseless shrapnel rains
Drowning men no chance for a warrior's fate
A choking death enter hell's gates
Sliding we go
Only fear on our side
To the edge of the wire
And we rush with the tide
Oh, the water is red
With the blood of the dead
But I'm still alive
Pray to God I survive
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
The rising dead faces bloated torn
They are relieved the living wait their turn
Your number's up the bullet's got your name
You still go on to hell and back again
Valhalla waits Valkyries rise and fall
The warrior tombs lie open for us all
A ghostly hand reaches through the veil
Blood and sand we will prevail
Sliding we go
Only fear on our side
To the edge of the wire
And we rush with the tide
Oh, the water is red
With the blood of the dead
But I'm still alive
Pray to God I survive
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
How long on this longest day
'Till we finally make it through
If you ever get the chance don't miss the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.
It started out as the WWII D Day museum in the buildings that made the Higgens boats so vital to making the landing. You can see the only restored landing craft that I know of.
The museum has been expanded to include all theaters of WWII. You can spend an entire day there and not see everything. If interested in WWII it is worth making the trip .
Gary
Certified Cajun
Proud Member of The Basket of Deplorables
" Let's Go Brandon !"
Thanks so much. With the words we can understand
LOYALTY ABOVE ALL ELSE, EXCEPT HONOR
"Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
NRA BENEFACTOR LIFE MEMBER
Thanks for the lyrics...
Plata o plomo?
Plomo, por favor!
Thank You for the stories and the lyrics. As I tried to state before, those men are heroes, both the living and the dead, and truly deserve "The Greatest Generation" tag. I don't know if I could have done what they went through. that goes for all of them. hope we never have to go through something like that again, but history says we will. It's a shame.
Rob
All my immediate relatives were in the Pacific campaign, but there were NO easy duties in that conflict. And in fact, every time I look back at it all, and what those men did and achieved, I am even more humbled to realize that it really didn't have to work out in the end as it did. We actaully, at many points along the way, COULD have lost that horrible war! But God was with us, and truly, all those wonderful soldiers and their folks back home, did literally everything they COULD do to defeat the evil in the world in that day. I can't help but wonder how we'd do today in a similar situation? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question. Maybe they were indeed the "Greatest Generation?" I sure don't see many like them today. There are some who have lived up to what they did for us, but .... fewer than I surely wish I saw! God rest their wonderful souls! Very few are left living now. Dad would have been 104 now if he were alive today.
I'll always be in awe of those wonderful men!
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