Back when I was in my early 20s I worked security for a major university. One of the campus cops - I’ll call him Bill - was older than most of us. He was also fat and slow.
Bill didn’t look anything like those slick cops you see on TV. Some of the younger campus cops made fun of him. And they just wouldn’t stop. Bill never said anything back. He just took it.
Well, one day Bill brought a briefcase to roll call. He didn’t say a word. He just opened up his briefcase in front of us. In that briefcase were citations and rows of medals. Bill was an Army Ranger who landed on D-Day.
Nobody made fun of Bill after that.
About fifteen years ago I met an older man who was a D-Day minus one vet.
He was with Navy UDT. He and a few others swam five miles to Omaha Beach, planted some time bombs at some of the steel hedgehogs them swam back to their ship.
He took a bullet on the Higgins boat later in the day. After recuperating he spent the rest of the war in the pacific theatre.
Joe was an older gentleman in our church about 1984. He was friendly, relatively outspoken, and quick to help. He was also a known d-day vet. He would never talk about it. Not to anyone. If asked, he would just nod his head and remain silent. As I said, he was a friendly man. But he simply would not talk about d-day.
Joe was an older gentleman in our church about 1984. He was friendly, relatively outspoken, and quick to help. He was also a known d-day vet. He would never talk about it. Not to anyone. If asked, he would just nod his head and remain silent. As I said, he was a friendly man. But he simply would not talk about d-day.