Posted on 06/05/2019 10:08:43 AM PDT by uscga77
On the 75th anniversary of D-day I honor my dad's very good friend Shahan Kaprielyan. Shahan was an Armenian from Turkey who had come to our country to go to aviation school with my dad. When the war started he signed up to become a bombardier. While riding the train to report he was approached by an officer. I understand you can speak five languages. We can make most anyone into a bombardier in just a couple of months but we can't teach five languages. We want you to work in intelligence. So Shahan went in on the second wave on D-day as an intelligence officer and that's how he got his citizenship. He told my dad that the beaches were covered with dead and wounded from the first wave. My dad asked Shahan if he had told his parents in Turkey what he was doing. He said, No, they would worry. And besides if I got killed they would be notified. Hand salute to my dad's good friend Shahan
Great story.
My Father’s Battalion, the 208th Engineer Combat Battalion was very fortunate. They were scheduled to be landed early to clear obstacles.
Their ship developed engine trouble and had to return to England. They didn’t land until a few days after D-Day, at Utah Beach. The heavy fighting was over tho there was still a little bit going on.
They did run into a buzz saw at St. Lo.
I worked with a man, Bill. Bill was the number 1 salesman in the company. You could totally botch his job and he’d just say ”they’ll buy it”. He always said he did all of his selling on the golf course.
One day the dudes in my area were all talking about Saving Private Ryan which had just come out. And Bill was near going over a proof. I’m not sure what was said, but during the conversation Bill chimes in “ I was a screaming Eagle.” We all stopped and looked at him. I remember saying “No shit?” And Bill says “ I was a bad-ass motherfu**er”. We all just stood there. In shock. He packed up his work and walked away. Never said anything about it ever again. And that’s all I know about his service
Many years ago I worked campus security. One of the guys I worked with was fat, old, and slow. Some of the younger guys teased him about that. And the teasing was constant.
Well, one day this old guy brought a briefcase into the campus police station. He motioned us all to gather around. Then without saying a thing he opened the briefcase. In it were all sorts of medals and commendations. The fat, old, and slow guy was an Army Ranger who landed on D-Day.
No one teased him after that.
I was in the Army Infantry and could not imagine doing an amphibious landing. I recently read that no U.S. Marines actually were involved with D-Day.
A big grin and a bump for Bill!
My step father and all uncles fought in WW2, some landed on D-Day after being in NAfrica and Italy with patton. other uncle fought the japs at guadalcanal then tarawa. step-dad wounded twice PH and Bronze Star with cluster, uncles same injuries medals all army. Genuine heros who saved the world. Uncle Wally killed and France and buried at Catigny gardens
Thanks for sharing. There are so many untold stories of average men and women who sacrificed in all our wars. It’s nice to hear them when we can.
My father was at Utah beach. He went on shore on the 3rd day and I asked if it was quiet. He said: “It was quiet for about a mile or so... then you had to duck...all the way to the hedge rows.” He said for two weeks he walked bent over at the waist and felt he’d have to walk like that forever.
My father's brother Adrian, came from Holland as a little boy with his two brothers, and their parents in 1912. They were all naturalized through my grandfather's application. My grandmother had already died by then. My uncle served in a Petroleum unit which was supposed to have landed at Normandy in the days following the landings. I never knew him as he died at the age of 32 of blood poisoning. He was married, but he and his wife had no children either. Sadly, all my grandparents died before I was born in 1946.
My brother was a Vietnam Vet...25th Infantry Division - Cu Chi 1966-67. He died at the young age of 51 in 1995.
In 2006, I traveled overseas for the first time with my oldest son. The first part of the trip, we drove to the small village in Holland where my father had been born, and stayed overnight. The next day we drove back to Brugges to drop off the rental car. We then took the train to Paris together, as my son wanted to make sure I got to my hotel okay, then he took a train from Paris to Berlin. I stayed in Paris for a couple of days because I had a tour reservation to visit the D-Day Landing Beaches. After Paris I headed to London, had a week there before hopping a 3-week bus tour of the British Isles. It was the trip of a lifetime for me.
As a kid in my early teens, my Dad’s co-worker, golfing buddy and across the street neighbor Joe was someone I liked and admired as a real man...
Years later, my Dad told me Joe was a Ranger who had scaled the cliffs at Pont-du-Hoc on D-Day...Joe had been decorated for valor for something he did that day, although I never found out what it was...
Joe never talked about it...
My uncle and his brother were in the 82’d Airborne and jumped into Normandy. My uncle lost his teeth when he landed in a tree his brother was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW.
1). Mr Honey - friend who served at both D-Day and Battle of the Bulge.
2). Mr. Mann - friend who served on D-Day.
3). Mr. Brewer - friend who served on D-Day.
Special shout out to someone I never personally knew, but he was my Father-in-Laws big brother - and I still hear stories about him.
Sgt Gordon H. White, Jr.. One of the "Bedford Boys" killed at Normandy.
God Bless you all for your devotion to Duty and Sacrifice
Thank you all for sharing these moving stories. My husband’s father was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge - lost his leg there. He had a wooden leg from the thigh down that our son thought was the coolest thing - he put his socks on with thumbtacks!!
We went to the little town near Aachen/ but in Belgium where he was hit. There is a little Catholic church there with plaques honoring the soldiers who had fought there, and a teeny museum in the woods east of there where much of the action was.
I ran a food closet at our church; an old vet, Roger, came up from the VFW hall to help. Roger was a hoot - a real diamond in the rough. Stalwart and responsible, he was a real help. But if people, many of them from other countries, could not understand his English, he would just speak louder and louder. So funny.
One day I asked him about the War. He told me he had driven ambulances on the D-Day beaches; ‘I was one of the older ones. I was 24.’
Remembering Roger today and my father-in-law.
I made the point of noting the year of birth on the crosses and the American cemetery in Normandy, and realizing that many weren’t much older than my kids when they fell really brought it all home.
God Bless our Troops, past and present.
My Uncle Tom, was a Navy pilot in the Pacific, earning a Navy Cross and Silver Star and all three came home after the war.
My Dad served in The Coast Guard during the Korean War. As a kid, I remember my uncles didn't talk much about their experiences (except meeting up as it fascinated everyone) but boy those were some good parties when all four brothers were together!
In my mind, the only was we can repay our debt to this generation is to uphold the ideals they fought for, live each day as though their sacrifice means something and ensure our liberty remains for generations to come, whatever that takes.
This 79 year old blond Brit. has reason to be so grateful for the sacrifices made during WW11.
Joined the Battle of Normandy Foundation, but it seems to be defunct now.
As a founder member, I received a small pouch of sand from Omaha beach. Gave it to my neighbor who's brother died there on D-Day.
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