It’s been almost eight years since my father, an infantryman with the 28th Division, passed on. The 28th was originally slated to land on D-Day, but plans changed and he didn’t land in France until the 22nd of July. What they missed in Normandy they made up for later in the Hurtgen forest and during the “Bulge”.
While he lived, WWII was more then history to me, it was right there in the man that raised me. As time takes those veterans from us, the story of that epic war is becoming books and monuments rather than living memory, and it pains me to see how little some of the young kids know about WWII.
My children and I read your first post to this thread, and I read them Ike’s letter out loud. I told them that when I was their age, WWII was “Dad’s war” to me, just like OIF is “Dad’s war” to them. It’s good for them to see something online that remembers WWII, it makes it more immediate to them than their old man talking about his old man back in the old days.
That somebody else takes the time to remember and post a thread like this means a lot to me because it makes an impression on the boys.
Thanks for posting that.