70 Years ago on June 6th.......

Bobzilla wrote: I mentioned todays date at work. NONE of the "kids" I work with knew what it was/meant. One asked if it was "Pearl Harbor", the other thought it had something to do with the towers. Jeez o pete. What the hell are we teaching our youth? ANYTHING?

Did they know about D-Day though? What it is? I don't care if they knew the date, but if they could tell you about Omaha, Utah, Juno, etc., then they're doing pretty good. I don't know the dates of Gettysburg, other than "Summer 1863", because frankly that is a small detail that isn't important for me to memorize unless I go back to high school or get on Jeopardy.

Bobzilla wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: When I was born WWI was only about 50 years ago and I couldn't have told you much about particular battles or how it began. I had to google for the date of Gettysburg. Do you think about that on July 1st and remember the fallen of the American Civil War? WWII was 70 years ago. I grew up in the shadow of men who fought there (and Vietnam was still going on) so I had some frame of context that was personal to me. No 25yr old today had that experience to cement big events from that era in their minds. They may remember the first and second Gulf Wars or Afghanistan with clarity when they are our age.

I grew up in the 80's/90's. EDIT: had to walk away.... I grew up in a house that loved history. So I paid attention in class, checked out books from the library that contained as much history as I can find. Hell, I spent 3 hours this morning browsing the wiki section on Normandy...

Me too--ask me anything about American history, and I can probably give you some information on it. I can almost guarantee that I do not know the date.

mtn wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: I mentioned todays date at work. NONE of the "kids" I work with knew what it was/meant. One asked if it was "Pearl Harbor", the other thought it had something to do with the towers. Jeez o pete. What the hell are we teaching our youth? ANYTHING?

Did they know about D-Day though? What it is? I don't care if they knew the date, but if they could tell you about Omaha, Utah, Juno, etc., then they're doing pretty good. I don't know the dates of Gettysburg, other than "Summer 1863", because frankly that is a small detail that isn't important for me to memorize unless I go back to high school or get on Jeopardy.

I did have to explain WHAT D-Day was to one of them. He seemed completely unimpressed that the largest amphibious landing to ever take place happened and that thousands of men younger than him gave their lives to stop a manical madman like Hitler to take back Europe. That is what made me saddest of all.

wbjones wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Another neat story... Eisenhower's "In case of failure" message. http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-eisenhower-d-day-message-story.html "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

Do you think anybody today would have the dignity to make such a statement?

nope … now-a-days the trick is to find someone else to blame any failure on

and there'd be a lawsuit.

Local connection: Many of the glider pilots who took the "Towed Target" "Glider Rider" infantry into Normandy trained at Lubbock, Texas.

Silent Wings Museum

We haven't forgotten.

TRoglodyte wrote: Life expectancy was less than 60 seconds for the first ones to hit the beach, they knew this and went anyway. "Devotion to duty". Words fail me ...

The war was riddled with events like that, those actions are what earned their eventual title of "The Greatest Generation"

In reply to yamaha:

A well deserved title at that.

You had to love the 93 year old veteran parachuting in on the anniversary.

spitfirebill wrote: You had to love the 93 year old veteran parachuting in on the anniversary.

Agreed.

Favorite quote was "You can't be afraid of death, if you're going to fight"

In reply to Appleseed: That instantly brought tears to my eyes.

There was a neat story on NBC news last night: A C-47 that was actually used on D-Day was restored, brought to France, and reunited with the man who flew it that day. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/d-day-70th-anniversary/veterans-reunite-d-day-c-47-aircraft-n124126

In reply to stuart in mn:

They even did drops with it too while he was onboard watching them all.

One of the HBO channels showed Band of Brothers today in its entirety, and I watched most of it for the who-knows-how-many-th time.

The last episode gets me every single time. For reasons I can't explain, hearing how these vets lived the rest of their lives moves me even more than seeing them fight and die from one end of Europe to the other. And hearing Winters' bit at the end about how he wasn't a hero, but he served in a company of heroes...knowing that all of those men probably feel the exact same way...aw man, bring the tissues.

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

George S. Patton

I watched Band of Brothers last month and just finished The Pacific the other day.

Both of my Grandfathers had been in the Pacific theater so no D-Day for them. Mom's dad was Army in the Philippines before the war and was left behind when MacArthur retreated. Dad's Dad joined the Navy on Dec. 8, 1941.

We're watching The Pacific this week. The wife and I can only watch so much before we feel emotionally wiped out. It was the same when we watched Band of Brothers.

In reply to Will:

And Patton died from a vehicle crash before the end of 1945.

going to the pacific. I still have a great uncle around who was there. He was in Pearl on Dec 7. Thankfully only on an oiler, but they were hit and ordered out of the harbor because of their flammable cargo.. they made it far enough out to sink and get picked up by a destroyer heading out to search for the Japanese fleet.

I will have to dig up his entire service record.. but let's just say he is either the most lucky guy in the navy, or one of the most unlucky. I can't tell

A C-47 with invasion stripes flew over Lubbock today, part of the Silent Wings museum observation of the 70th anniversary. It gave me a shiver.

Will wrote: ...For reasons I can't explain, hearing how these vets lived the rest of their lives moves me even more than seeing them fight and die from one end of Europe to the other...

Gets me also.

It might be because it makes you think of all the lives that never where... the ones that stayed in Europe.

Not particularly related to Normandy, but if you want to read a great book about someone who had it tougher than you've got it, read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand. It documents the life of Louis Zamperini, a man who went from being an Olympic distance runner to bombardier in a B-24 in the Pacific Theater, to plane crash victim, to guy fighting off sharks in a rubber raft, to POW. To think that this man is still alive today struck me as remarkable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pulc6kDsk