June 6 1944

God bless all those who participated in Operation Overlord. They are all true heroes and helped keep our freedom. You will never be forgotten.

Yes, never. . .

Very nice!

This link takes you to a video of a Coast Guard Combat Veteran of D-day.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070606/VIDEO01/70605069

WW2 song for the Greatest Generation

http://www.frankloesser.com/work/worldwar

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stay free!
Praise the Lord and swing into position!
Can't afford to sit around and wishin'
Praise the Lord we're all between perdition
and the deep blue sea!
Praise the Lord we're on a mighty mission!
All aboard, we're not a - goin' fishin;
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stay free!

I'd forgotten that song. I was taught it in school and my dad used to sing it. Who sang it do you know? and who was the author?

Here is some info on the song

http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&objkey=81

CG Rescue Flotilla, the CG manned transports and the CG manned Landing Craft. All earned their pay this day.

For some reason, my childhood neighbors Dad just crossed my mind. He's getting up there now, but I remember him just mentioning that he was a boat engineer on the Coast Guard manned troop transport USS Bayfield. Never much detail.

Thanx Fireman 1st class Nelson, USCG.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mastersmate,

I was just watching the Invasion again on the history channel,makes me a little sad and Queasy every time I watch it.

Me too. All the young men that died, landing craft that left them in deep water etc
My cousin was one of them, he took off his pack and swam for it

I just finished reading "The Bedford Boys".
It's a compelling story of men from the Bedford Va National Guard who were modilized into the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division.
Company A hit the beach at 0630 June 6. 19 soldiers from Bedford were killed that day, many in the first half hour, and altogether 22 died in Normandy. This made Bedford (pop 3,000)one of the hardest hit towns in America for casualties in WWII on a per capita basis.

As a result of this tragedy, the Army changed it's mobilization policies to prevent such a loss from recurring. I guess this was to the Army what the Sullivans were to the Navy. Tragedies both.

It was often said among the troops who landed on D-Day that you could tell if your coxswain was a Coastie or not just by the landing you made. If you had to swim to shore then he wasn't but if you got to walk (or run) in then you knew he was Coast Guard.

It's gray, and cold, and unforgiving as far as the eye can see. I stand on top of a German pillbox and look out over Utah Beach. The penetrating wind is so ferocious that I'm having trouble keeping my balance so have to crouch low to keep from falling down the cliff. Sea foam is blowing around in large, sticky clumps and hanging off everything like Spanish Moss. The people at the museum said today was a great day to visit the beaches - the weather contitions today were exactly as they were on D-Day even tough this was November and that was in June. That June day was a freak storm and this November day was mild - they matched.

(Sorry, I posted by mistake - wasn't finished!)

As I stand there in that pillbox with full coverage of the beach below, I cannot imagine what possesed Eisenhower & Co. to believe we could possibly survive a landing here. It's totally exposed with no place to take shelter. The cliffs up where I stand, the gun emplacements, are formidable and the guns in place are many, big and well- manned by experienced troops and have the perfect placement for picking off invaders. It's a killing field below, a slaughter house.

With the wind screaming around me, the empty landscape as far as I can see and my fertile imagingation calling up all the books I have read about that day, the ghosts of D-Day soon make themselves heard in my head. It's not clear but I do hear a cacauphony of sounds - screams, artillery, small arms fire, shouting, big guns, a constant "whiring sound, dive bombers, explosions, but most of all, the screaming. And the smell of cordite. How did they do it? I don't understand how they managed to get through - it was a turkey-shoot for the Germans - but the did, and at such a cost. It's said that many of them were so seasick that they willing threw themselves off those landing crafts and into machine gun fire just to get off those boats! Maybe I can even believe that.

I crouch there looking over that sacred site and thank G-d I was allowed the chance to visit, to say "Thank You" to those who reamain in that hallowed ground. Then I saw them out of the corner of my eye - a herd of horses galloping down the beach. There was about 20 or so horses, with no humans around, running full-out in the surf. They weren't spooked, just enjoying a good, hard run like horses are want to do every now and then. I have no idea where they came from or where they were going as nothing was around - they were like an apparition.

Leaving was hard. I felt like I should stay to keep watch over the souls who died there. Perhaps their spirits hadn't left the beach and they needed someone to stay with them? But I said good-bye and made my way down the cliff; it hurt. Thank you for being there that day; I wouldn't be here if you weren't.

"I cannot imagine what possesed Eisenhower & Co. to believe we could possibly survive a landing here."

I'v often wondered the same thing about IWO JIMA and Mount Suribachi,could there have been a better landing zone for the troops but I don't know why the decision was made,there was probley a good reason,or did they under estimate the resistance to be.

D Day again

The Military channel is running prgrams all day today about D-Day.

Great D-Day site with some USCG pics...

<http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/06/05/the-65th-anniversary-of-d-day-on-the-normandy-beaches/>