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I'll start by saying that I was torn between posting this in the Watercooler or in the Politics & Current Event thread. But I think P&CE is more appropriate.
Today we of the USA and many other nations are remembering D-Day, June 6, 1944, on the 75th anniversary of that massive invasion. We all know many stories, I am sure. I thought I might remember two people who were actually there. I limited myself to people I actually knew. The history books can tell us many things, but I talked with these two men personally.
My father-in-law (now deceased) went ashore in the 3rd wave of the invasion at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Sergeant Loyd Joseph "Roy" Tabor survived the landing and followed a more southerly route, not heading straight for Berlin but more of a flanking action. During his many weeks of hard fighting, he was among several units that liberated concentration camps along the way. When he told his stories to his grandson and to me later, his eyes would take a very distant, far-away look as he described the horrors of what he saw. To his dying day he never claimed to understand how people could treat other people in the way that the Nazi regime treated the people in the concentration camps and death camps. Roy came home, where he became a carpenter building homes and being father to three children including my dear wife L. He passed away peacefully of natural causes having lived long enough to meet his great-grandson T. We have one picture of a smiling old man holding a squirmy infant and everyone smiling around them.
I had the pleasure of meeting Marvin James Perret (also now deceased) who was a landing craft steersman, sometimes called a coxswain. He made multiple trips to the Omaha landing zone and back to the boats to drop off and pick up soldiers, all while under fire. (The steersmen were always priority targets.) He survived D-Day and continued to drive boats to bring ashore personnel or supplies for most of the rest of the war including at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. When he retired, he became a "living exhibit" at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. One day when I took my grandson T (Roy's 1st great-grandson) to the exhibit, Mr. Perret spoke of that day and spent some time telling his story to a thoroughly fascinated 9-year old boy. He stands out among the many people to talk to us that day because of his kindness to an impressionable young boy. Also because on that day Mr. Perret was wearing his Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded for his service of repeated trips to combat areas while himself under heavy fire from enemy rifles and cannons. Mr. Perret's oral history of his action has been preserved by the WWII Museum in New Orleans and can be viewed on-line. Just google the name Marvin J Perret to see a bit more of his history.
This post is not about the tyranny of Hitler's regime or the political situation that was in place back then. It doesn't matter whether you think in retrospect that the war was a good thing or a bad thing. That isn't my point at all. I post this because among many others 75 years ago, these two men were brave enough to fight a war on behalf of people living half a world away.
In memory of Sergeant L J Tabor and Petty Officer 2nd Class M J Perret, I offer a salute and a tear in your memory on this 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Today we of the USA and many other nations are remembering D-Day, June 6, 1944, on the 75th anniversary of that massive invasion. We all know many stories, I am sure. I thought I might remember two people who were actually there. I limited myself to people I actually knew. The history books can tell us many things, but I talked with these two men personally.
My father-in-law (now deceased) went ashore in the 3rd wave of the invasion at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Sergeant Loyd Joseph "Roy" Tabor survived the landing and followed a more southerly route, not heading straight for Berlin but more of a flanking action. During his many weeks of hard fighting, he was among several units that liberated concentration camps along the way. When he told his stories to his grandson and to me later, his eyes would take a very distant, far-away look as he described the horrors of what he saw. To his dying day he never claimed to understand how people could treat other people in the way that the Nazi regime treated the people in the concentration camps and death camps. Roy came home, where he became a carpenter building homes and being father to three children including my dear wife L. He passed away peacefully of natural causes having lived long enough to meet his great-grandson T. We have one picture of a smiling old man holding a squirmy infant and everyone smiling around them.
I had the pleasure of meeting Marvin James Perret (also now deceased) who was a landing craft steersman, sometimes called a coxswain. He made multiple trips to the Omaha landing zone and back to the boats to drop off and pick up soldiers, all while under fire. (The steersmen were always priority targets.) He survived D-Day and continued to drive boats to bring ashore personnel or supplies for most of the rest of the war including at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. When he retired, he became a "living exhibit" at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans. One day when I took my grandson T (Roy's 1st great-grandson) to the exhibit, Mr. Perret spoke of that day and spent some time telling his story to a thoroughly fascinated 9-year old boy. He stands out among the many people to talk to us that day because of his kindness to an impressionable young boy. Also because on that day Mr. Perret was wearing his Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded for his service of repeated trips to combat areas while himself under heavy fire from enemy rifles and cannons. Mr. Perret's oral history of his action has been preserved by the WWII Museum in New Orleans and can be viewed on-line. Just google the name Marvin J Perret to see a bit more of his history.
This post is not about the tyranny of Hitler's regime or the political situation that was in place back then. It doesn't matter whether you think in retrospect that the war was a good thing or a bad thing. That isn't my point at all. I post this because among many others 75 years ago, these two men were brave enough to fight a war on behalf of people living half a world away.
In memory of Sergeant L J Tabor and Petty Officer 2nd Class M J Perret, I offer a salute and a tear in your memory on this 75th anniversary of D-Day.
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