is TOMORROW!!!How will you all honor those who gave thier lives June 6,1944?I for one will START by visiting the National cemetery(its REAL close to the house)and then watching SPR and THEN go shootin at our farm.

OK...I guess none of you are gonna do a damn thing on D-DAY huh......OH,I forgot y'all are gonna JUST work.(nothing planned for the afternoon)SOUNDS LIKE FUN!!!

I am going to thank my Grandfather for his service during the war. Just a little info about him and his service.

He was a medical officer that went in with the para gliders on D-day, his unit was assigned to the 101st.

Unfortunately for him was captured by German soldiers immediately after landing(he says landing were more controlled crashes). He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. Fortunately he was liberated by US Forces and not our "allies" the Soviets.

Went on to serve in Korea. Almost went to Vietnam. Retired in 70 or 71 a bird Colonel.

eagle1911,tell you granddad that I thank him too for his service to our country

My Grandfather landed on Omaha, D-Day +1. He was a Scout, serving with the 9th Inf. Regiment, 2nd Division. Made it three months before being severely wounded in the leg during the battle of St. Lo. Luckily, for him, they managed to save his leg.  Took him many years to talk about the war, but I'm glad he did. Sadly, "Pops" died in '86. Will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery tomorrow paying my respects to him, and his fellow serviceman.

Given that I don't personally know any veterans, being a young'n myself, I can't thank anyone personally.  My grandfathers both passed away almost 10 years ago or more.  I didn't know if/what my paternal grandfather did during the war, but my maternal grandfather was an aircraft mechanic in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific.  He worked on the B-25 Mitchells.

I don't have any national cemetaries to go to, and work will keep me from going to the range.  

I do feel that I, and every other American, owe a debt of gratitude to the generation who fought in that bloody conflict.  They fought to preserve our freedom and way of life against an evil and facist regime.  It was a right and justified war, and it's outcome was right and justified too.  
I thank all of the servicemen who died, have died since, and who are still alive today.  I don't know that if, the same thing happened today, that there would me many young men of their kind to fight for freedom, but I'd gladly take up my rifle and stand up like they did to preserve that which I love.  

Thank you all WWII veterans, and all veterans of our armed services in all wars before, and all wars since then.

Sent my annual donation to the vfw today............[:)]

My butt will be planted behind the SD desk at batt. HQ from 0900 Thur. til 0900 Friday. If that wasn't the case I would be over at the National Cemetary participating in the ceremony. We take 6 June pretty seriously here as our unit was one of the ones that jumped in the night prior. Unfortunately our annual D-Day jump was scratched today due to weather.

My great uncle was in the first wave at Point De Hoc ( hope I spelled it right) Was shot in the leg. Wont say any thing else. I thank him every time I se him.

My Grandpappy spent the War in the other theatre, but I still appreciate him....


Scott

BTW, he [b]NEVER[/b] speaks about his days in the Navy fighting Tojo...

MAC-Daddy, I will pass it on. BTW the not talking about the war seems to be a recurring thing for the vets of that era. My grand pappy would not talk about it for the longest time. It was not until my 18 year old cousin was in 5 or 6 grade that he started going to the school to talk about the war. He felt he needed to remind her generation about what happened during WWII.

BTT

Thanks EricE!Very kind of you to see this as an important thread.And Thank you eagle1911 for the reply too!

Painfully enough, I see veterans that come into the ER at the Hospital where I work almost every day... and I [b]never[/b] pass up the chance to say "Thank you for fighting for our country, thank you for all you have done". Sometimes, it really makes a difference, and I know that they are really happy to know that someone cares.

I believe that my paternal grandfather landed on the beach about a week after D-Day.  He died about 10 years ago, and he never really talked about it. Last year we went over to Michigan to talk to his sergeant, and he shared some stories about Elroy(my grandpa).

My favorite one was when they were hiking through France, and they came across a muddy little creek about 10 feet wide.  Elroy's Capt. orders him to jump in to find out how deep it is, but Elroy informs him that he can't swim. The captain gets pissed off because Elroy is defying orders, so Elroy holds his breath and jumps in the creek.  He immediately sinks to the bottom, and since the water is muddy he has completely disappeared from view.  

The Capt. freaks out and is about to order someone to jump in and save his ass, when Elroy's two hands stick out of the water holding his rifle, and he begins to walk across the bottom.  Everyone stands there and watches as the two hands move across the creek, and upon arriving at the other side he hauls himself out of the water.

He was kind of unlucky (or lucky, depends on how you look at it) though. He was shot in his stomach on his birthday. He was returning to his fox hole after scouting ahead, when somebody got trigger happy, and shot him with an M2(ouch).  He must have passed out, because they thought he was dead, and they put him over by a bunch of other dead soldiers who needed to be buried.  After a little while he started moaning and his sergeant(the one we were talking to) realized he needed to get him to the hospital ASAP.  He used one of the horses and took Elroy back to a medical truck.

Obviously he survived otherwise I wouldn't be typing this, but since he died when I was 8, I never really got a chance to talk to him about it...although I do remember him having one hell of a scar.

BTT

I went a couple of times in the Anzio Cemetery to honour those guys that came from over the Atlantic ocean on a ship and never returned their home. It's impressive to see more than 2500 white crosses all aligned in a half circle, like mute witnesses of a tragedy that shocked all the world for 5 painful years.

I am grateful to those guys, as well to those brave men that fought from Omaha Beach to Sword, from Normandy to Berlin, because otherwise now in Europe we would celebrate the Hitler birthday and speak German.

I remember, but many others, in Europe, pretend of not remembering... you know what I mean.

And in some other countries other people just don't know what your fathers and granfathers did in the name of FREEDOM... and you know WHO I mean...

WELL SAID!

I will stop by and pay my respects at FDR's grave on the way home from work as i do every year.