Popular Post Parsnip Totin Jack ★ Posted June 6, 2020 Popular Post Share #1 Posted June 6, 2020 My Dad’s older brother, Norman, was born in 1923. Dad, 1929. Norman joined the Army in WWII. He took part in the D-Day offensive as part of the 82nd Airborne. Shortly after midnight, June 6, he and other soldiers parachuted behind enemy lines to assist the invasion. Norman earned a Purple Heart that day. He returned to the US before the war ended and never spoke of himself as a soldier. Norman died in 1974 from lung cancer. He was always larger than life when I was growing up and I never knew his story until recently. I (now), joke with my cousins, that he was why it’s called Normandy. 9 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrapr ★ Posted June 6, 2020 Share #2 Posted June 6, 2020 WoScrapr, LilScrapr & I were on Omaha Beach 3 years ago. We were all crying looking at how far the men had to go from low tide. It was shocking. Then our guide pointed out the gun placements that were years old. Plenty of time ti sight in killing zones 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophet Zacharia Posted June 7, 2020 Share #3 Posted June 7, 2020 That they managed to take those beaches amazes me every time I think of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted June 7, 2020 Share #4 Posted June 7, 2020 It went virtually unmentioned here, buried by other news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Longjohn ★ Posted June 7, 2020 Share #5 Posted June 7, 2020 My dad spent the war stringing communications wire. He only spoke of the things he found funny so it didn’t sound too bad. Then one summer on vacation we visited one of his army buddies in Vermont. That’s when we heard the real story. I liked the funny stories better. I don’t like to hear about death and dying. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralphie ★ Posted June 7, 2020 Share #6 Posted June 7, 2020 1 minute ago, Longjohn said: I don’t like to hear about death and dying Yes. War movies are way too depressing to watch. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MickinMD ★ Posted June 7, 2020 Popular Post Share #7 Posted June 7, 2020 15 hours ago, Old No. 7 said: My Dad’s older brother, Norman...joined the Army in WWII. He took part in the D-Day offensive as part of the 82nd Airborne....Norman earned a Purple Heart that day. He...never spoke of himself as a soldier...and I never knew his story until recently. Great story! My father, in Darby's Rangers, never spoke of being in action. He'd tell me funny stories but not battle stories. Then, in college, there were entire aisles of the library filled with WW2 official histories: U.S. Army European Theatre had about 50 huge books. In them I learned that things I thought my Dad had embellished were not exaggerated at all. I'd ask him and he'd ask back, "How do you know about that?" and then he'd fill in the details. That's was the only way we learned anything about what he did in action until my sister and I got old enough to drive him to Ranger Reunions. In one reunion lecture at West Point, an Army historian was telling how the Rangers spotted for the Air Force, miles behind enemy lines, where the Germans had set up camouflaged artillery at a town called Castellamare, Italy and called in the information so exactly the Air Force needed only one pass to knock out the artillery. My Dad stood up and said, "That's not how it happened!" Another ex-Ranger pointed to my father and said, "He should know: he called in the positions." My Dad had been trained to be in artillery before Darby asked him to join the Rangers - initially only 400 men - because he needed spotting skills. He also called in the Naval artillery during the Rangers amphibious landing at Gela, Sicily, shortly after the platoon he led stopped an Italian tank by ripping out the spark plug wires! So, little by little, we got a good picture of what he had done in action in 1942-43 in Africa, 1943 in Sicily, and 1943-44 in Mainland Italy where the Rangers spearheaded five major amphibious landings, multiple behind the lines attacks, and paid the price. Dad, the year before he died, in Custer State Park, SD in 1992 feeding crackers to a wild burro and ready to duck back into the car in front of hundreds of buffalo, thumb and index finger only on left hand courtesy of attacking behind the lines near Anzio, Jan. 1944: 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisL Posted June 7, 2020 Share #8 Posted June 7, 2020 Yeah I thought of it but didn’t think to post of it. For some reason one of my sisters feels it’s important to remind me each year too. Interesting to hear the tales of WW II Veteran Dads. My Dad was in the “KNIL” loosely translated to Royal Dutch Army of Indonesia. Indonesia fell to the Japanese early in the war & he spent 3 years as a POW at Changhi Prison. When liberated he was so weak & frail the liberating medics triaged him and sent him to the morgue. He realized they gave him up for dead so he crawled out of the morgue and then was taken to a hospital where he recovered. However, shortly after the War, Indonesia declared independence from Holland so he actually ended up fighting in the war of independence. My mom told of some scary stories as even living on the base was not safe for them as Holland didn’t have the money nor will to fight the Indonesians as Holland was still in shambles. My dad never received pay while he was a POW. The Dutch Govt couldn’t pay them and then after he immigrated just refused to pay him. My mom was able to get the back pay in the early 1990’s. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Posted June 7, 2020 Share #9 Posted June 7, 2020 A good time to post Charles Durning's speech about his experience on D Day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted June 7, 2020 Share #10 Posted June 7, 2020 1 hour ago, Kirby said: A good time to post Charles Durning's speech about his experience on D Day Interesting to see a young jsharrt narrating. Those guys were tough as hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheep_herder ★ Posted June 7, 2020 Share #11 Posted June 7, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophet Zacharia Posted June 8, 2020 Share #12 Posted June 8, 2020 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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