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Friday, June 6, 2014

June 6, 1944

(Two posts today. Please scroll down)

70 years ago today:


D-Day photo essay at WTOP

16 comments:

  1. Hi AOW, I hope one of your commenters or you can find out the facts on following statement Obama made today in Normandy:


    "Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg has served ten. I've told Cory's incredible story before, most recently when he sat with my wife, Michelle, at the State of the Union Address. But it was here, at Omaha Beach, on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, where I first met Cory and his fellow Army Rangers, right after they made their own jump into Normandy.

    I an find NO evidence he was in Normandy Ten years ago.

    LIE?" Pres George W. Bush was there in 2004 to mark the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/o/OBAMA-NO-SHOW-D-DAY.htm#.U5GNtfldX7d


    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/dday.asp

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. President Obama first met Sergeant Cory Remsburg close to a graveyard for American soldiers in Normandy, at a commemoration of the sixty-fifth anniversary of D Day, in June, 2009. Remsburg, an Army Ranger, was playing the role of one of the paratroopers at Omaha Beach, where many of them had died (The New Yorker, January 2014).

      What we should be focusing on is the sacrifice of allied servicemen on D Day, not Obama. I think my friend Tammy is right about the ADD problem, or first cousins marrying ...

      Delete
    2. Will,
      Did Obama say today at Normandy, ""I was here 10 years ago"?

      As far as I can tell, Obama wasn't at Normandy 10 years ago.

      Delete
    3. If I remember correctly Obama hasn't been to Normandy since 09 or 10? And now it's just window dressing since the VA and trade sheet storm have dumped all over him.

      Delete
  2. Not sure how people find you, but as always, you have comments from people with adult A.D.D. who cannot stay on topic.

    For my part, my sincere gratitude is extended today to all who have served, and continue to serve our nation.

    God Bless America. And God bless our military men and women.

    Tammy Swofford

    ReplyDelete
  3. Two of my favorite cousins (age 19 and age 21 -- both volunteers) served on D-Day. Both came home physically unharmed, but both died early deaths: one at age 39 and the other age 44.

    I knew both of these cousins very well, and I can tell you that they had nightmares for the rest of their lives and never slept a night completely through. They never really got over what they saw and experienced. And, like so many, they told no war tales. In fact, if not for other members of the family, I'd never have known that my cousins served in WW2.

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  4. Those brave Vets and buddies of those killed are now in their late-eighties and early-nineties. Still they have been going to Normandy, hobbling on canes or pushed in wheelchairs in cemeteries, their hands shakily placing flowers on the graves. Dressed in their World War II uniforms, they are acutely aware that it is likely their final visit—and in many cases, it is their only visit. Soon these real Americans, who are the survivors of that time will no longer be around to tell their stories.. As the Vets of today will someday. God Bless them all.

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  5. Thank you AOW for posting this fine blog today!

    And thank you to all the Brave and Honorable Men and Women who laid their lives on the line in WWII, as our Brave and Honorable Men and Women are doing today.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A film for D-Day

    Just a very ordinary young Brit in training before the landing. Rather brilliant.

    I think the scene where he asks for bereavement leave to say goodbye to his mother because he thinks it's the last chance he'll have is more profound and wrentching than anything Spielberg has done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder ... do you regard this attitude as what sets Americans apart from Europeans? They are fatalistic, and we are the eternal optimists.

      Delete
    2. That's an interesting question, Sam.

      In this case the director is American and I'm not sure that the nationality of his everyman is significant. What sticks with you is the "ordinaryness" of the kids in the front boats.

      I don't know of any in depth study of the films of WW II of various nations. I do know that the Japanese deconstructed the militarism but were never able to accept fault.
      Germany produced very little even after the conent controls were lifted.

      Delete
  7. In Memoriam
    D-Day, June 6, 1944
    Lincoln Revisited, Revised and Updated

    [Two-hundred-thirty-eight] years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

    [Once again] we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of [clashing theories and opposing philosophies of governance]. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a ... place [to pause and give thought to] those who ... gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

    But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate –– we can not consecrate –– we can not hallow –– [any calendar date or mere piece of] ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled [fought and died, left maimed blinded or deranged], have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.

    The world will little note, nor long remember what we say ..., but it can never forget what they did ....

    It is for us the living, rather, to ... [dedicate ourselves to complete] the unfinished work which they who fought ... have ... so nobly advanced ... –– that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion –– that we here [today] resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain –– that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom –– and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    ReplyDelete

  8. This post is about D Day not Obama
    !! When you relish in annoying people with off-topic jabs, you will get a lot more than a COMBATIVE ATTITUDE THROWN IN YOUR FACE. Do we understand each other!

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  9. There's absolutely nothing that I can add to what has been presented and, otherwise, said.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I had uncles and possibly a cousin or two in World War II, but I don't know of any at the Normandy Invasion.

    The bravery of those men at Normandy is impressive. I know they were scared out of their wits, but they went ahead and did their duty. This has been an American attitude for centuries, but some are forgetting who we are and from whence we came.

    Last night, i was impressed with the former soldiers that were in Bowe Bergdahl's unit. Without considering what they said, and why, it is remarkable that those young man have the values they exhibit. They stepped up and spoke of those things they believe to be right. They spoke of their commitment to each other when in battle, and how they viewed their duty. These young people make me proud to be an American.

    We're not dead as a country, yet.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi AOW.

    He did say it Quote:
    ""Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg has served ten. I've told Cory's incredible story before, most recently when he sat with my wife, Michelle, at the State of the Union Address. But it was here, at Omaha Beach, on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, where I first met Cory and his fellow Army Rangers, right after they made their own jump into Normandy."

    http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/06/world/europe/obama-d-day-speech-transcript/

    caught it right away :)

    Pres George W. Bush was there in 2004 to mark the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

    ReplyDelete

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