June 6, 1944
75 years ago today.
To all the valiant soldiers who selflessly faced unimaginable odds…
Thank you.
June 6, 1944
75 years ago today.
To all the valiant soldiers who selflessly faced unimaginable odds…
Thank you.
4,414 U.S. soldiers died that day , more disappeared in the the current and were recorded as M.I.A. ... never found. Still more died of their wounds at a a later date. The pain and sorrow of those men that stormed, an appropriate term, and the loved ones left behind shaped a generation. My parents generation …. worth both standing up for and taking a knee for. R/
I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...
God bless our greatest generation! Those who served and those at home. Our world is a better place because of them.
God bless America!!!
Thanks from a grateful nation.
Chris Cravens
Girouard A5
Montana Flatiron A-Jr.
Passernig Mandola
Leo Posch D-18
God bless all our veterans!
Yes those soldiers allowed us to continue to be free Americans, and I thank God for them but I also thank God for those that are serving our country right now. These men and women are carrying on what was started in 1776and has made this nation survive thru many wars. My hat is off to all service men ( and women) then as now. Thank you for your service.
That was one tough generation! My one Grandpa was at Pearl Harbor when we were first attacked and luckily it was on a Sunday as he told his mother on every Sunday morning he would go to church! Also very lucky as his ship was one that went down!
On another mandolin note-I have the history of the original owner of my 1935 Gibson F-12 and in the papers its said he was in the Navy and took this mandolin with him during the war? I find it hard to believe as its just too clean to be beat around in a ship during that point in history-perhaps he took another one? Anyway if these instruments could talk/in one sense they do by being played but if they could tell stories of the past wouldn't that be some Twilight Zone type material!
Lest we forget that we are an international group, we can remember the contributions of the British, Canadian, and allied forces who were also landing in Normandy and also remember the terrible toll the French civilians paid in the invasion and liberation of their country. The best way to honor the sacrifice of the service members and the civilians involved is to strive not to repeat such a terrible thing as war.
Jamie
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865 - 1946
+ Give Blood, Save a Life +
For sure Jamie, my dad and uncle were signalmen in the British Royal Navy, my dad had his ship shot out from under him in the Bay of Biscay in 1943 and spent D-Day at Eisenhower’s HQ relaying messages during the invasion. Thank you one and all around the world for the courage and sacrifice made by so many military and civilians alike!
Northfield F5M #268, AT02 #7
Modern circumstances leads to many later-Baby-Boom or younger generations of American's pretty-much taking their freedom for granted - but most WWII veterans, and/or their immediate families knew the horror and struggles of TWO World Wars that happened in a span of less than 30 years. (I still have very vivid memories of seeing WWI veterans marching in a Memorial Day parade when I was about 5 years old.)
My mother grew up in Italy in the 1940's and they literally fought WWII on her property . . . the Germans took over her home on one side of the street (forcing them to live in a grotto under the house), while the American troops were living in their farm house on the other side of the street. Air raids and dead bodies were not unusual in her town during the closing months of the war.
I thank the Good Lord every day for the freedoms and safety that I enjoy 75 years later, and tip my hat to 'The Greatest Generation' for helping to make that possible.
Thank you very much, JEStanek. A great number of countries fought to liberate both Europe and Asia in World War II, many, including mine, having joined the war more than a year before the USA. Canadians fought from Hong Kong and Japan through Burma, North Africa, Italy, and northern Europe (including Germany), to Atlantic Canadian waters. U-boats sunk ships docked in Newfoundland, and made it as far up the St. Lawrence River as Quebec City (water and light patterns made it hard for planes to target them). During the first year of the war, the US was "neutral." Some prominent leftie folkies who later supported the Allies, campaigned against their country helping to free Europe, because of "Uncle Joe" Stalin's non-agression pact with Hitler.
People from all the allied and occupied nations appreciate the great contribution that the USA made to the war. Without American involvement, the war would, at the least, have continued for a long time or perhaps dragged to a stalemate. We might have lost. Yet, this was a World War, not an American war. I knew a number of Canadians who fought on Juno Beach on D-Day. My father was navigator on a Spitfire, fighting over Europe, but was not flying on D-Day. My 97-year-old mother, who was a PT instructor in the Royal Canadian Air Force and never made it out of Canada, is presently fading from life at a Veterans Hospital in Halifax, where my siblings and I are keeping vigil, and singing her favourite songs. There aren't many WW II vets left. The man in the next hospital room played French horn in a UK army band that entertained the troops. He joined up at the age of fourteen -- that's not a typo -- but didn't fight.
Vets assure me that war is hell, and every one I met wanted peace, but WWII stopped Germany and Japan's attempt at world domination, and freed many countries from attempts at Empire building. So here's thanks to the people of all countries who fought for freedom in the second world war. Peace to all.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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