Time for reflections on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
My uncle Dennis was a tailgunner on a B25 Mitchell on D-Day+1 and my uncle Louie was a rifleman as part of the invasion force on D-Day+2.
The Longest Day
by savage ( 81 Comments › )Filed under Europe, History, Military at June 6th, 2012 - 4:00 pm
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We're not easily offended and don't want people to think they have to walk on eggshells around here (like at another place that shall remain nameless) but of course, there is a limit to everything.
Play nice!
My father landed at Omaha Beach. Was wounded 3 times losing his left leg above the knee the last time.
@ citizen_q:
Wish I had more information, but my father was killed by a drunk driver in 1973 while I was still a young kid. I believe if he would speak of it at all, he wasn’t going to until I was older. Don’t want to hijack the thread with that, but I will never know.
I do wish that he would have been able to take part in the D-Day Anniversary events. He deserved the honor.
@ citizen_q:
Damn sure does. {Citizen Q}
@ citizen_q:
Salute! My stepmother’s brother landed at Omaha. He was with the squad that was first depicted in The Longest Day blowing up the berm with a bangalore torpedo. The scene was replicated in Saving Private Ryan.
I just now looked at the vid. That berm scene from Private Ryan is there.
@ citizen_q:
I remember your story about how your dad lost his life. And he was a hero.
May I remember my father, a B-26 pilot, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Clifford F. Bailey. He bombed Utah Beach on D-Day.
And quite deliberately, Hubby and I married on this anniversary. At Antietam, Burnside Bridge, on the Confederate side, that was finally taken by troops from New York (Hubby) and Pennsylvania (me). I understand whiskey was involved.
Today is our 20th.
Guess which Chief Executive has no commemoration of D-Day planned—except to “hit the beaches” in his own way.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Moo-shell?
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Disgraceful.
my dear old dad was a Marine grunt…Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan and Okinawa…Tarawa and Saipan were resisted landings and Tarawa went into the books forever, it was a bloodbath, a three day gorefest
@ MacDuff:
Actually, I’ve done the President an injustice; he’s not going to the beach in California.
He’s merely going to more fundraisers in California.
Scott Ott from PJ Media, in his current video, says that Obama “will lay a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Donor,” which sounds about right.
@ MacDuff:
BO skipped the MoH Ball when he was inaugurated…first POTUS ever to do that I believe
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
2 years in a row no less. What a punk.
heysoos wrote:
Oh god yes. The soldiers in the Pacific Theater don’t get their “D-Day” acknowledgement. Was it Saipan where the women took their children and jumped off cliffs?
Dad fought the Germans but never hated them. He spit when he said the word ‘Japan’.
eaglesoars wrote:
Ever since I’ve known her, Mrs. Funn’s B-Day has fallen on D-Day. Congrats to you and Hubby.
eaglesoars wrote:
yes, near the end of the fight, civilians were jumping…remarkable piece of historic propoganda
eaglesoars wrote:
Okinowah.
There used to be a time when NO ONE fucked with the US military. They got their asses handed to them/ OOH RAH bitchezzz.
My Grandpa was 101st.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Well, the day’s not over yet, maybe he’ll do a moving tweet before the night’s done.
huckfunn wrote:
Must be because you know her.
Oh. Wait.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS FUNN!!
(you DO know jewelry works wonders, right? Or guns.)
(thanks)
well, I’ll say this…my dad had nothing good to say about the Japanese…ever…he didn’t hate them so much as despised them for their brutality…plus he carried mortar fragments inside of guts for the rest of his life…when people become hateful or bigoted, sometimes there is a legit reason for it…war will do that to a good man
@ eaglesoars:
Happy Anniversary! A milestone year.
eaglesoars wrote:
Congratulations!
@ Rodan:
whoa…some bad ass guys there…they trained almost as hard as the Marines!
eaglesoars wrote:
What does one get for the woman who has everything? Always a tough call. She doesn’t even like my guns. If I gave her a gun for Christmas or B-Day, she’d probably use it on me.
@ huckfunn:
Yinz have kids? Get her a grandmother’s ring. Put their names and birthstones on it.
heysoos wrote:
In one of my jobs, I was team lead (software development) and would get resumes. If I thought one was promising I passed it around for feedback. Got one from a guy born in Hawaii w/Japanese name. He was graduating from a local univ. One person on my team was Chinese (Taiwan). She told me in no uncertain terms that if this guy set foot in the building, she would resign. I tried to explain -- he had nothing to do with any of it (this was in the 70s) -- blah blah blah. Then she said. “Yeah, right. These are the same people YOU PEOPLE interred. In CAMPS”.
I had nuthin’.
He never got an interview.
Here is the Obituary of a good friend of mine that died last year.
He was a soldier in the U.S. Army, 37th Engineers, Combat Battalion, and landed on D-Day in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 and fought through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.
1
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/unionleader/obituary.aspx?n=richard-exline&pid=149364952
I miss you Dick.
heysoos wrote:
Later on when I was older. My mother told me once that sometimes little bits of shrapnel would work their way to the surface of his skin and they would just pluck them out. Now sometimes my mother would sometimes …ahem embellish her stories, so I am not quite sure about that.
Heck I have a memory that I question. I seem to remember seeing my dad off at the airport, and him requesting to be frisked by hand because as a wounded vet he was still carrying shrapnel and it would set off the metal detectors. I think this was at National (I think they called it National then, it is Regan now) Airport in DC. The reason I question my memory is that I wonder if they were using metal detectors that long ago?
@ eaglesoars:
Congrats!
@ heysoos:
My Grandopa was at Bastonge in 44 and when he died last year, he got full military honors. He hated Nazism, Communism (He served in Korea also, though not with the 101) and Islam.
NoThreat2U wrote:
I’ve got one son who’s 29. No grandkids. The lad’s been camping out with the same gal for 3 years now with and seems to be in no hurry about tying the knot. Giving her a granny ring would probably be a bad move. But thanks for the tip. I can use all the help I can get.
huckfunn wrote:
Does she like perfume? Gucci just came out with a Flora line that is absolutely divine. Tuberose, Gardenia, and Magnolia.
Rare books?
@ huckfunn:
What abouta surprise date…somewhere unexpected 
A mother’s ring would suffice. Maybe leave room on it for a grandbaby or two. Or you could go with sexy lingerie
citizen_q wrote:
Your memory is correct. Dad had shrapnel in his right thigh that was always working its way out. And yes they DID have metal detectors ‘back then’. Remember how every woman with an ‘underwire bra’ just screwed up the works? They finally fixed it when a bunch of military women (my sister included) got fucking fed up and started throwing punches (no, you won’t find any media reports)
eaglesoars wrote:
Congratulations!! The first 20 is definitely the hardest -- all the best for the next 20 and beyond.
@ citizen_q:
my dad and I went to Jamaica 4 times, with my wife and mom…every time he was stopped at the by the TSA…this was ’98-’02…we could see the metal, kinda cool actually
Statue of ‘Band of Brothers’ hero Richard Winters unveiled at Normandy.
Rodan wrote:
awesome…he made history at Bostonge….the stuff of legend…
NUTS!
eaglesoars wrote:
Have to go there and ask, “wouldn’t that be hitting the bitches?” then???
heysoos wrote:
I was wrong…that was ’02 to ’06
My Dad never fought in WWII he was stationed in Florida in 1944 and was to go on a training run but switched with someone for reasons I will never know (He died in 1973) The flight is now know as the lost squadron. I am very glad he did.
@ MacDuff:
Thank you. It has been remarkably easy. We ALWAYS remember we consecrated this day for all the people who willingly made untold sacrifices to make this world a reality. It has never been just about us. We married on this day in honor of all of them.
@ eaglesoars:
Congratulations on your anniversary!
@ eaglesoars:
Thank you
These are the kinds of things you just don’t ask others about, or at least I don’t/haven’t.
Back then was before October 1973. I was a kid, and while that seems long ago for metal detectors at airports, I do think paleosimian hijackings had occurred by then.
@ huckfunn:
wow. some french are actually worth the powder to blow them to hell.
Who knew
huckfunn wrote:
Awesome. Band of Brothers is my husbands favorite movie concerning WWII.
@ Lily:
I must have seen that movie 10 times and I am sure I will see it 10 times more. Very good movie.
@ BBEV:
Indeed it is … outstanding. I have seen it several times and am sure to see several more. My son gave it to me as a Christmas present one year.
Lily wrote:
“The Pacific” was also well done.
Lily wrote:
That movie is addictive. We can be channel surfing and if it pops up, we are immediately paralyzed.
@ MacDuff:
I have that one too.
@ Lily:
I have many of to old movies on DVD also when war movies said America was the best. Today there are so many that do not.
OFF TOPIC: I just found this NSFW video regarding the late, great science fiction author, Ray Bradbury:
Courtesy of Vilmar
eaglesoars wrote:
Yep…I have the DVD collection so if I see on TV..I say what lets watch it without the commericals to hubby.
citizen_q wrote:
That may also have been a reaction to the “take me to Cuba” hijackings of the 60s. Your dad had an incredible life, I’m sorry it was cut short.
BBEV wrote:
Indeed. I have many old war movies too. Hollywood has become a disgrace about our soldiers now.
This movie just came out…don’t know if it is any good or not..haven’t seen any word about anywhere ..negative or positive.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591479/
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/actofvalormovie
@ Lily:
My cousin just watched it. He said it was good but he has seen better.
@ Macker:
I’m glad the wife was not around just now when I watched that.
I have a bunch of work to do in the kitchen, but before I go, I’d like to connect some dots.
The Diamond Jubilee in Great Britain. Queen Elizabeth. I really don’t give a monkey’s butt about anyone’s opinion about monarchy. Elizabeth has held that country together when it was -- and is -- in peril -- of flying apart. What is going on in the EU is a nightmare. That woman has re-ignited in her countrymen a vague memory of what it is to be British. They are going to be the bulwark against the pac-man that the EU is trying to become. Pay attention.
Never, in my life, did I dream I would see Germany looking at hegemony and say “no thanks”. When Europe looks to Germany and Germany reluctantly takes up the banner (they will), we will have problems. Pay attention.
China’s demographics are a nightmare. If they had a brain in their head, they would open the flood gates to North Korean refugees. But they don’t and they won’t. Pay attention.
Now off to cook asparagus, beets and kohlrabi.
Yep he is going to ignore the anniversary of D-Day….
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/06/06/obama-spends-record-amount-of-time-fundraising-hits-153rd-fundraiser-since-announcing-reelection-bid-bush-did-only-79-at-same-point-in-his-presidency/
@ NoThreat2U:
Thanks..
eaglesoars wrote:
Hopefully, instead of the Western World having problems, the Mohammedans will!
@ Macker:
Well I have to admit their history doesn’t bode well concerning that.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FgecqttxoQg
@ NoThreat2U:
Dammit.
@ NoThreat2U:
Blame it on your keyboard….me and Dorian know they are at war with us.
/
@ Lily:
I added the damn v…dont know what happened. Definitely worth watching though.
Lily wrote:
Damn right…
@ doriangrey:
Keyboards must vote democrat.
Why don’t these people just leave the United States instead of letting us know how horrible everything American is. I say LEAVE and don’t come back. Also the phrase “home of the brave” annoys him too.
http://patriotupdate.com/24165/current-tvs-bill-press-star-spangled-banner-stupid-and-embarrassing
NoThreat2U wrote:
Pure commie pinko’s is what they are.
@ Lily:
LOL I am beginning to believe that. Sneaky little bastards that they are.
@ NoThreat2U:
Indeed they are…they try to make me look stupid..and honestly I don’t need any help in that area!
@ Lily:
You are just too fabulous for them!
They hate ya because they aint ya
@ NoThreat2U:
NoThreat2U wrote:
An overnight stay at one of those special love-nests for couples, or maybe even at a couples-only resort?
@ 1389AD:
Ohhhh, another great idea