Y'all.... I hated history when I was in school.... It was nothing but dates to memorize and events that didn't mean anything to me.
BUT.... since then, I have had an awakening.......

I just CAN'T imagine the FEAR those brave soldiers had to OVERCOME when they stormed the beaches of France on 6 June 1944. The Germans had been in France for so long that they had time to build strong fortifications so they definitely had the upper hand in France.. 24,000 American, British and Canadian troops went into the water, waded ashore and headed toward the open beach facing German machine gun fire. It is estimated that over 10,000 allied troops were killed with 4,400 confirmed. SO.. almost 6,000 were unaccounted for. Maybe even killed and washed away by the tide. SO.... almost HALF of the soldier that went into battle that day......died.
My son works at UMC in Jackson. Last year he had the RARE occasion to see and talk to a D Day vet. The story that this soldier told my son brought tears to my eyes. My son later told me.... so this story was second hand to me...... BUT, it was still a powerful story of bravery.
There is still a very small handful of D Day vets alive today... we owe them a debt greater than we could EVER pay for keeping America free. If you have the RARE opportunity to SPEAK to a WWII vet, please shake their hand and tell them "thank you".... it is the very LEAST we could do.

God bless the brave soldiers of WWII.... thank you for saving America and the WORLD from the EVIL LEADERS of WWII.

If you have the chance.... pause a moment today and thank God for blessing our country with His Grace and for those brave Allied soldiers of WWII.

 

Well said Mike. My 96 year old Father whom I plan to spend today with was a nose gunner in a B-24 during WWII. He has told me many times about seeing the water off Omaha Beach turned red from the blood of our soldiers. Take time today to thank a veteran for what we have today. Namely FREEDOM. Steve

 

Sorry I missed this when current.

Back in 13 I met the last surviving member of my dad's 8th AF crew shortly before his death & he gave me a copy of self published book based on his combat diary.

Enlistment, training, missions of a B-17 ball-turret gunner, smallest guy on the crew. Dad, the tail, was second smallest at 5-10 & his best bud.

He told me they came in drunk at 4:30 & mustered out at 5:00 to bomb the beaches, which did no good since they over shot (the whole group) & dropped 90% of their ordinance about a 100 miles inland.

Something that gets left out in most histories, movies & documentaries.

He told me a couple other things that I never had a clue to which,... yeah I gotta keep personal but were very informative.



This skinny kid flew 30-33 combat missions over Axis territory in the beer can tail of a B-17 & at the time of this pic (MSU for life) was a Mstr Sgt & had a DFC with 3 oak clusters.

He was also the plane armorer who made sure all the guns were kept up & screwed/un-screwed fuses in the bombs after take-off & it they had to land with a load that couldn't be salvoed.



Met and married my mom after 3 weeks when he shipped back from England & was waiting for Pacific orders in San Antonio.



God bless all who serve.

 

WOW...Now that is a cool story and I LOVE the pics!

YES.... bless all who have served and all who still serve!