67 years

[dutchy kilted]

Went to a parade last weekend where the guest of honor was a paratrooper from the American 101st Airborne Division who parachuted into Normandy. I cannot imagine what courage that took.

Incidentally, the local minor-league baseball team, the Lancaster Barnstormers is having a tribute to Dick Winters and the rest of the "Band of Brothers" tonight with some of the veterans making an appearance. (Dick Winters lived locally the last few years of his life.) Very appropriate.

[Burly Brute]

My grandfather was anti-aircraft stationed in Germany. I have the utmost respect for him and the work he has done all his life, now 90 years old and still living on his own (quite capable I may add).

What a poor Tennessee farm boy, raised among 12 other brothers and sisters can do is amazing.

I was watching a documentary the other day, and they were showing footage of the beach today, and even amidst the laughter and people playing on the beach it still carries that eerie feeling of just intense loss (lives), but intense victory.

[BoldHighlander]

[tulloch]

God bless them. That was truly a crucible.

[BoldHighlander]

Went to a parade last weekend where the guest of honor was a paratrooper from the American 101st Airborne Division who parachuted into Normandy. I cannot imagine what courage that took.

Incidentally, the local minor-league baseball team, the Lancaster Barnstormers is having a tribute to Dick Winters and the rest of the "Band of Brothers" tonight with some of the veterans making an appearance. (Dick Winters lived locally the last few years of his life.) Very appropriate.

I recall while in Jr. High, meeting my friends father, who was one of the pathfinders with the 82nd Airborne on Normandy ... he was still one scary & tough looking son'uva gun even in the 1970's.

Another local vet (of both WWI & WII) I was friendly with back in the early 80's, gave me a German bayonet & scabbard he took off a dead German at Omaha Beach. I still have it.

It has always been a great pleasure & honour to meet those who fought evil, I still stand in awe of them.

[Jock Scot]

I was just old enough to remember that for months the UK was full of soldiers, sailors and airmen and not forgetting the women's contribution either, marching hither and thither, nearly every clump of trees had lorries, tanks, piles of wire,planes, guns, or stuff under tarpaulins hidden in them, planes flying everywhere, our harbours full of shipping of all shapes and sizes and then they were gone!Not all of them of course, but it was eerily quiet-----. It was 6th June .

Yes, I remember them.

[Riverkilt]

Hey Sp00ky, my dad was at Dieppe too. In the air in a Hurricane with the RAF.

[bigdad1]

A year or so ago I saw some WWII and Korean-era US Army uniforms. I had always assumed that the soldiers involved in these wars were big, strong hero-type dudes, like you see in the movies. I'd imagine some of them were, but these uniforms were size 28, 32, and 34 waist pants and size 38 and 40 jackets. That's the size of my ninth-grade boys. The point is, while movies like to glamorize real events, a lot of the servicemen (and women) were still teenagers, called up to do the work of a dozen grown men, each. A lot of them had never been away from home before. My great-uncle was so sheltered that he slept in the same bed with his mother until he shipped off to Basic.
While it was never my privilege to serve, my hat is off to those who did.

When I left home and enlisted I weighed all of 140# and my first issued uniform had a size 29 waist. I still have it some 48 years later. The pack I wore the first time I saw combat probably weighed about 70# or half of my weight. There is usually a big difference between fact and fiction. Especially with regard to war. Today is indeed a special day and those involved 67 years ago all deserve a moment of silence.

[Bill aka Mole]

When I was stationed at Port Hueneme, CA during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, one of the civilians who worked in the environmental department was a child living in Germany during WWII. He told my fellow Chief's and I how, in his village towards the end, the Mom's in the village covered the building that a Tiger tank was in with tablecloths. This was to signal to the allies where it was hiding. That morning, an aircraft dropped a bomb on it, destroying what was left of the tank. Seems that the tank had been left there as the power train was damaged and the men assigned to the tank had left during the night as well. Hans remembered that literally everyone was working in the fields that morning so that no one would be hurt when the building and the tank were both destroyed.

On my Mom's side of the family, three of her brothers were in Europe, two were Rangers. Only one came home and he was a changed man. Shortly after he died, my Mom told me about finding photos of the camps that he was involved with liberating. Unfortunately, those photos were destroyed long ago.

[tripleblessed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4WZwz2C72M

I've known a few men who were there, and several folk whose fathers were. A special group of men, mostly quiet, unassuming guys.
Our eternal thanks.