D-Day [vanity]

me

[Leaning Right]

As most of us know, today is the 81st anniversary of D-Day. Bing marks it on their homepage (good for them). Google has nothing.

Anyway, if you have a D-Day story of a sort, feel free to post it here.

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TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 19440606; dday; godsgravesglyphs

[Leaning Right]

Here’s my D-Day story. I’ve told it before. It’s not something I copied off the internet. I was in the room.

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.

[Red Badger]

I am named for my uncle who was killed in France in the immediate aftermath of D-Day. He was 19 years old, and the youngest of my grandfather’s children by his first wife who had died of TB several years earlier.

His other two brothers served in the Army in various places................

[Theophilus]

MOH BG Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Age:57, a diminutive man, when he stormed the Utah Beach with his walking cane and his men!

[PGalt]

R.I.P. uncle Bill Warner.

[Dan in Wichita]

As I mentioned on a similar thread today...

On June 6, 1984, I vividly remember getting out of bed early to watch the ceremonies in France to commemorate the 40th anniversary of D-Day. Reagan’s speech at Pointe du Hoc was one of the greatest moments of his historic presidency. Unforgettable.

[Macho MAGA Man]

Henry Fonda played him in the movie The Longest Day.

[rlmorel]

Thank you for starting the thread.

[SMARTY]

My father was there on ‘D=+3’. I asked if it was still contested. He said that the beach (though a mess) was not contested but that about 1.5 miles inland, you had to keep your head down.

‘For days, we had to walk bent over. I thought I'd never be able to stand up straight again.’

[freefdny]

I listen to a WW2 podcast called “We have ways of making you talk”. It’s done by 2 Englishmen James Holland and Al Murray. They did a ten part D Day show which I thought was great. It’s on YouTube They do make fun of Patton’s high pitch voice and pump up Monte a lot but that’s to be expected.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M8vlwsT106E&list=PL6OnZvWLYS_eODWHIYsk4cgHLcEzggcNp&index=118&pp=iAQB

[Tell It Right]

When filming the Star Trek shows, they took care to make sure that the viewers didn't notice that actor James Doohan (Scotty) was missing a finger. But one shot accidentally made it to production. He lost it at D-Day.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LR. GGG ping without the graphic.

[China Clipper]

Every year, I take time to remember the brave souls who fought and died on these beaches. For the past 20 years or so, it’s been the same routine for me. I try to attend Mass in their honor and memory, and later I watch Saving Private Ryan in the home theater.

No matter how many times I see it, those first 15–20 minutes hit hard. I find myself thanking God for the courage, grit, and sheer determination of those young men who stormed the beach 81 years ago today.

May God bless them, and may He continue to protect and watch over our country.

[Migraine]

In 1944 my dad was a staff sergeant in the U. S. Army Air Corps stationed at Colorado Springs. My mom worked at the telegraph office while she did her student teaching. One day my mom was waiting to get on a bus, but it was military priority. My dad saw her and said, “I’ll get you on this bus if you’ll share your sandwich with me.”
Not long afterward, he proposed and she accepted. they set the date for June sixth. When that day came, the base was locked down, and they didn’t know why. my dad needed to get off base to go get married. But needed the chaplain’s permission in order to do so. he was given one hour to complete the task.
It was D day; they just didn’t know it. Their anniversary has always been easy to remember.

[Nicojones]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1960/11/first-wave-at-omaha-beach/303365/

https://dai.ly/x125wqk

[No name given]

If it weren’t for those brave men, we’d all be speaking German and sporting swastika armbands.

[hardspunned]

CBS Reports (1964): “D-Day Plus 20 Years - Eisenhower Returns to Normandy”

https://youtu.be/vNaxTXfjfXk?si=UFWamyCq7JV0eb-X

[Thank You Rush]

THAT was great - thanks for posting. There were several celebrities there that day also. Some names surprised me or I’d forgotten..

https://www.biography.com/military-figures/d-day-famous-people

[Thank You Rush]

The picture on Bing is grand. I always use Bing for my searches and enjoy the daily pictures..

Thanks.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Reagan’s speech at Pointe du Hoc was one of the greatest moments of his historic presidency. Unforgettable.””

You are so right..Hard to forget that one. Every year you think there will be another great speech there but never has been!

[AppyPappy]

My wife was working as an elderly assistant for a couple. The man had Dementia but he did remember that he was at D-Day. He had several pictures.

One of our church members drove a Higgins boat on D-Day. It messed up his head pretty badly.

My dad had a D-Day ribbon but he was on Okinawa. it must have been a unit citation as I think he was attached to the 8th AF building/repairing airfields. When I found his DD-214, he was awarded a Bronze Star for being the guy who filled out the forms for medals and discharges.