Seventy Four

[getsome]

years ago today over 130,000 brave young men jumped out of airplanes and landing craft to save France and the world from the Germans....By the afternoon around 10,000 lay dead or dying on the beach...The rest went on to defeat Germany and later Japan.....This was truly "The Greatest Generation"....I honor their sacrifice and salute the few remaining WWII veterans still with us today....I wonder what they think of today's millennials and their ideas about America...

[Bawanna]

Amen. Beyond comprehension what that all must have been like. Climbing down the nets, jumping out of the planes.

Greatest Generation for sure.

[Armybrat]

74 years ago today Bryan Fox of Granger, Texas went ashore on Omaha Beach in the first wave and was shot up so badly he spent the next year in a stateside hospital recovering. Later he became a prominent local educator & rancher.

I had the privilege of falling off one of his cutting horses during the BBQ engagement party he & his wife Geraldine threw for J & I in the spring of 1967. Bryan later passed away from a heart attack suddenly at age 80+ while doing what he loved best - participating in a week long trail drive in Southeast Texas with many of his fellow ranchers & their families. He was an awesome Texan, as was his wife. RIP.

[ltxi]

A fwiw note on two contemporary Gemans' perspective.....

Our family has much Germanic roots. My sister and BIL/cousin are very good friends with a couple they met in Germany many years back on a visit to some of her husband, Joe's, family. (Joe is US born and an at 85 old enough to remember D-Day Korean war vet.) That couple, Walter and Irene, are @ sister's visiting for a couple of weeks. Their thankful praise for our, US, sacrifices to to save their country from Nazism and our post-war defense and rebuild help is beyond heart warming.

[skiflydive]

A B-17 made several circuits over my office yesterday. (My office is 7 miles north of Kalamazoo airport where the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum is. An amazing display of WWII aircraft in several buildings. They have the only SR-71B there. A worthwhile visit for anyone interested in vintage aircraft.) At any rate, the B-17 is visiting there and selling rides. The sound of those 4 1350 HP radials was amazing. It was flying base leg and turning final right over the office at about 2500' AGL. An amazing sight and sound on the 74th anniversary. I ran outside every time.

[AIRret]

We love all vets……BUT it seems that the WWII vets are the last vets to be seriously appreciated.
How sad!

[Bawanna]

Ain't that the gospel truth sister! I mean cyber wife.