This day in history...

[FlyingVolvo]

67 years ago, the landings at D-Day took place. What incredible times...

Here's to all the servicemen from all the different countries who gave their lives during Operation Overlord. You are not forgotten!

[FCPEURO]

WOW, that is today. I am surprised I did not hear anything about it until now.

[jblackburn]

My granddaddy was part of the support on D-Day - and heavily involved in the Germany theater before that. He was a tailgunner on a B-17 that made runs over the beach. Just a few months before in 1943, his plane had been shot down and he was the only survivor - broke nearly every bone in his body and ended up in a body bag before they realized he was still breathing. As soon as he healed everything, he was right back in service.

Shame we never really got all of the stories from him about the war, but he didn't really like talking about it that much. The man could hit a Coke can sitting on a fence with a rifle from about 50 yards away though.

[FCPEURO]

My granddaddy was part of the support on D-Day - and heavily involved in the Germany theater before that. He was a tailgunner on a B-17 that made runs over the beach. Just a few months before in 1943, his plane had been shot down and he was the only survivor - broke nearly every bone in his body and ended up in a body bag before they realized he was still breathing. As soon as he healed everything, he was right back in service.

Shame we never really got all of the stories from him about the war, but he didn't really like talking about it that much. The man could hit a Coke can sitting on a fence with a rifle from about 50 yards away though.

Your grandfather sounds like an amazing person. I could understand why he would not want to talk much about it though. He probably saw some unbelievable things.

[Ozark Lee]

They were all amazing people.

My father in law was also a tail gunner, he never talked much about things but I could occasionally get him going while fishing off of my dock and after a few cocktails.

Three things stand out about his WW2 experience from his perspective.

1) The only thing he wanted out of the Army Air Corps was him.

2) If you don't like the British, you just don't like people.

3) They showed him all kinds of silhouettes of airplanes but his rule was that if it turned in on your plane, shoot the damned thing down.

He was a student at Ohio State university just before we entered the war and ROTC was mandatory. He never bothered to show up to ROTC class (It was an early class and he played the saxophone at a local strip joint ....errr check that....Burlesque House at night to pay for college). The ROTC officer tracked him down to tell him that he could not graduate without a passing grade in ROTC. He was pretty sharp even as a college kid and he just looked the ROTC officer in the eyes and plead his case that there was near certitude that we were going to war and that he was going to be drafted. He then asked the guy if his ROTC requirements would be waived if he went to war.

The ROTC officer then backed down and admitted that he was right. He graduated without ROTC - after the war - and then went on to law school at the University of Kansas.

What is even more amazing is that the Army wanted him to play in the band and go in as an officer, he was a very talented musician, and he chose to tell them NO and went in as a buck private with the rest of the draftees. He couldn't imagine telling his children that his service to the country was to play in the band.

We buried him coming up on three years ago like so many of the WW2 vets.

...Lee

[matthew1]

Great stories here. I should enforce the rule I myself made up about no war topics, but let this be the only war topic. I call it compromise, although some are welcome to use no backbone .

My uncle was in the end of the Vietnam war, a chopper pilot, during the evacuation of Saigon. He flew 8-on-8-off for days, getting out all the friendlies and their families, picking them up in fields and courtyards in the city and landing them on any US Navy ship that had a deck offshore. In a television documentary about the evacuation he said he saw his chopper's tail number among a group of choppers in a staging area, but he didn't know if he was on it at that moment.

If you've ever seen footage of bulldozers pushing helo's into the water off the side of carriers and wondered WFT?, it's because South Vietnamese pilots were flying their families to American ships and landing without permission (or space to store the choppers).

Additionally, my uncle happened to play the tuba, and played it for the children on the US ships to cheer them up. If you've ever heard a tuba up close in a room, it'll get your attention. He got out of the Marines in '76 or so and settled in San Diego and became known as the "Tubaman" at Padres games. He went to almost every home game and marched around in the stands playing fight songs on his Army-green tuba, at one time attracting a small band that would trail him through the stands. He opened a bar called "Tubaman's Grand Slam Saloon" on University, and was a very minor celebrity in San Diego for years.

I've met a few people here and there who knew who he was because they'd lived in San Diego back then.

[FCPEURO]

Excellent story Lee, I enjoyed reading very much. Also, thank you matt for not flagging it. Honestly, it is about the war in a way, but I think everyone here can appreciate it and no one would say that someone that fought in WW2 was a bad person so I don't see this causing any issues.

Anyway, if you are ok with it Lee, I would love to hear more about your grandfather's war experience.

[FlyingVolvo]

Great stories, thanks for sharing! And sorry Matt, about the topic. Wasn't intended to be a discussion about war itself really. I think these events are so long ago now that we can look at them from a historical perspective, as opposed to a political one.

Anyway...

Both of my grandfathers had a role in the war. On my dad's side, my grandpa was assigned to the China-Burma-India theater. He was blind in one eye so he was not put on the front lines. He was in charge of loading and unloading ships that came into port, and he had some very crazy stories about the wildlife there... particularly King Cobras!

My grandfather on my mom's side was in the French Army during the Bliztkrieg. He was a foot soldier in the 39th Infantry Regiment out of Rouen. He wrote a great memoir detailing battles that he was in, including when he was shot and took shrapnel from a Panzer tank blast. He was captured when his regiment was surrounded by a dozen tanks. He spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp before being released. He was one tough SOB.

I only wish I had been more interested in their history when they were still alive.

[FCPEURO]

Great stories, thanks for sharing! And sorry Matt, about the topic. Wasn't intended to be a discussion about war itself really. I think these events are so long ago now that we can look at them from a historical perspective, as opposed to a political one.

I feel the same way and I believe Matt does also, which is why I think he did not shut this down.

[matthew1]

I'm human . It feels good to tell what happened to brave people we know, or knew.