God Bless, Ike.
A true hero.
Posted on 06/05/2010 7:12:46 PM PDT by Retain Mike
God Bless, Ike.
A true hero.
I have an uncle - dear old Uncle Harvey - who was one of those in the 101st. Today, he is 88 years old. He still simply says, “We were just doing our jobs”.
It is signed July 5??
He wrote it in advance, in case the landings failed.
The planning, of course, began years earlier.
Also the landings were delayed one day this time, I believe. Earlier I think they were delayed about a month.
I think one of Ike’s quotes was, “Up to this point, I have been the most powerful man in the world, tomorrow [June 6], I am going to be the most powerless.”
That is a great perspective.
Excellent piece. Very well written. Thanks for posting it.
D-Day was June 6—not July 6th.
Lest we forget. Ike always felt kenly his disappointed in never having faced combat. But there is no doubting his courage. While in North Africa, he flew over the battlefield iin a light plane, armed with a pistol. H was an excellent shot, by the way, having been taught by a local woodsman he knew as a teenager. No an olympic quality shot like Patton, but he knew how to use a pistol. If General Andrews had not been killed, he rather than Eisenhower might have been name Supreme Commander, since they had to same skill sets. But how would Andrews have decided just before D-day.
“That is a great perspective.”
Looking at this from another perspective . . . I live in Berlin, Germany and my young son asked me about the book I am re-reading for the Nth time (Band of Brothers).
I explained to him how some 66 years ago today the Allies fought their way into “occupied Europe” at a great cost in life and treasure. And this book told the story of a small group of those men.
His “why’s and whats” were about: war, occupied Europe, Nazi’s, and so on. It was so difficult to explain and I realized then how much I never want him to have to go “in harms way”.
Thank you for that note about Eisenhower.
Thank you.
When Ike was shown the note years later, he said that the July 5th date must have been due to a “careless error.”
And he did what a great leader did, After giving the order that might have ended in the decimation of the paratroop divisions, he went down to talk to them—face to face, man to man, and stayed until the last plane left. Then we went back to London to watch to see if he had won his gamble. HIS finest hour.
He truly is one of my heros, and a damned good President to boot.
Anonymous airborne trooper to General Eisenhower June 5th, 1944
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