I don’t do D-Day very well these days. I get horribly depressed. Very few of those who served are left. The WWII vets are dying off at about 1500 per day. Many are in their 90’s. My own heroes of that era, my parents, are both dead. My mother worked for the Dept of the Army and my father served in the Army. D-Day always seems a little more poignant to me because it was my parents’ anniversary. They had been married 2 years on D-Day.
The 68th anniversary of D-Day came quietly this year. It sneaked up on me, to be perfectly honest. Today is June 7. It was wedged between events in Prince William County and a foiled plan to remove the governor of Wisconsin which dominated the news. D-Day marked the beginning of the end, the Allies broke through German fortifications and began the long trek towards Germany, liberating occupied countries as they advanced. Many men never came home. 29,000 Americans lost their lives in the Normandy invasion which included the weeks immediately following as they pushed towards the liberation of Europe.
Bedford, Virginia holds the record for the most servicemen lost from a town on D-Day. The National D-Day Memorial is located there. This memorial has a hard time keeping its head above water because of the recession and because it is a privately run memorial. The Memorial is subject to any glitch in the economy.
American Cemetery in Normandy
Additional film footage http://bcove.me/msfc2e1d
Go see this. Pass it on.
http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2012/06/reveille.html
FAbulous. No I didn’t cry but almost. I have spent enough time around senior homes where someone doesn’t come out to be a slittle bit steely in that regard.
The entire concept of the vanishing WWII vet is very depressing to me to start with. I pretended these guys were Korean War vets while I watched. My mind is easily tricked.
Thanks for posting that wonderful piece Cargo.
I visited the Bedford memorial for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I have also lived in France and spent a fair amount of time walking the beaches, backroads and burial grounds of Normandy. My uncle landed at Omaha Beach on D+x (insert single digit number – his diaries are guarded about specific operational dates). What struck me in Bedford was the odd, seemingly random juxtaposition of a Division whose make-up was so heavily concentrated in the out-of-the-way places in Virginia that I so dearly love and the turmoil in Europe brought on by limited vision statesmen, human foibles, economic stupidity, blind and blinding prejudices. Virginia blood was spilled for this. In the little villages of Normandy, almost every central traffic circle has a tended spot with French, American, British and Canadian flags flying. Lovely little flower gardens at the bases of the flagpoles. People far younger than I, and certainly the second or even third generation of those who lived through the invasion, take care of these spots. The next time you have a problem with a rude waiter in Paris, go to Normandy. I dare you to get through a little town on or near-behind the beaches or any of the cemeteries without shedding a few tears.
What a wonderful read you just provided, Scout. Thank you.
I have a close friend whose father was killed in D-Day+XX. She never knew him because she was a young baby. She and her daughter went to Normandy where he is buried the same year the WWII Memorial was finished. Her story was very moving. She said she just stood there and wept, uncontrollably for a long time over the enormity of the situation there and of course for a man who she never met but whose blood courses through her veins.