At night, every night, I drop to my knee and thank God for allowing my Family and I to live in the greatest Country in the World. I then say a prayer to God for giving me a Father who was a wonderful example to follow. He spent 5 years of his life (1940-45) overseas fighting to give me this opportunity. I continue to pray that I will honor his sacrifice and work by being a good, hardworking Family Man.

Thanks, and RIP, Dad.

I met a man a few weeks ago who ran away from home at 17 to join the navy during the war. He was on a PT boat and was at the Normandy invasion. He served 8 years, got out and used his GI bill to go to college and attend ROTC. Two days after he graduated the Korean war started. He fought in that war in the Pusan area. Later in his career he switched over to the engineering corps. Then of course he went to Vietnam. He was shot 3 times in the stomach during the Tet offensive. I sat and talked to the guy for almost an hour about his experiences. I can't imagine fighting in 3 wars.

3 wars and how many years of the lives of the people that meant the most to him. Of course that same number of his own life and he probably carries mental burdens at all times.

God bless them all.
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Before and After D-Day: Rare Color Photos. http://life.time.com/history/d-day-r...s/?hpt=hp_c2#1

TV show.

Band of Brothers' honored on D-Day anniversary
By GREG KELLER | Associated Press*–*1 hr 1 min ago
http://tinyurl.com/cyqcts2

SAINTE-MARIE-DU-MONT, France (AP) — With World War II-era military planes darting overhead and Normandy's Utah Beach visible in the distance, a bronze statue emerged from beneath a camouflage parachute, in tribute to a man whose quiet leadership was chronicled in the book and television series "Band of Brothers."

The unveiling of the Colorado-made statue of Pennsylvania native Maj. Dick Winters was one of many events marking Wednesday's 68th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied operation that paved the way for the end of the war.
The 12-foot (3.6-meter) tall bronze statue in the Normandy village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont shows Winters with his weapon at the ready. But Winters — a native of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, who died last year at age 92 — only accepted serving as the statue's likeness after monument planners agreed to dedicate it to the memory of all junior U.S. military officers who served that day.

"There were many Dick Winters in this war, and all deserve the bronze and glory of a statue," said former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, present as the bronze statue, draped in a camouflage parachute, was unveiled.
Also attending were four or five D-Day vets, including two who served in Winters' "Easy Company," Al Mampre and Herb Suerth Jr.

Winters "was a humble, simple person thrust into a position of leadership in which he excelled," said Suerth, who heads the association of former Easy Company vets, only 19 of whom survive.

The statue was made near Boulder, Colorado and transported here, to a roadside between the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont and Utah Beach, distant but visible behind the statue.

It was here that Winters and his small band of men dropped out of the sky soon after midnight on June 6, 1944, on a death-defying mission to destroy four German 105mm artillery guns that threatened the Allied invasion force.
During the ceremony, World War II-era military aircraft flew overhead, including a U.S. artillery spotting plane just like those that would have darted through the skies on D-Day.

Master Sergeant Frank Barnett, 37, a paratrooper from Anniston, Alabama, serving at the U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany, attended the ceremony with other members of the 435th Air Ground Operations Wing. Barnett and 18 colleagues had made the trip to Utah Beach to participate in a parachute jump over the same Normandy fields where Winters and his "Easy Company" landed soon on D-Day.

The paratroopers, dressed in military fatigues, said they've all watched "Band of Brothers" ''four or five times."

"It's important for us on the airborne side to remember everything they did," Barnett said. "They are the Greatest Generation."

The plan to erect the statue began 2½ years ago, said Tim Gray, Chairman of the Rhode Island-based World War II Foundation, which initiated the project and helped raise the $100,000 it cost.

The statue "is not a monument to one man, it's a monument to many men and the leadership they showed on D-Day," Gray said — "all the divisions that fought on the beaches and hedgerows of Normandy on June 6, 1944."
Tens of thousands of Allied and German forces were killed in the D-Day invasion and ensuing Battle of Normandy.

Frenchman Reny Rossey, 86, recalled accompanying a British unit in the invasion as part of the effort to liberate his country from the Nazi occupation.
"Coming back home, for us, it was enormous. We had to do this job," he said at a ceremony Wednesday at a British cemetery in Ranville.
"My youth saved me. I was 17½. I had no fear," he said. "You had to have audacity to join in something like that."

French President Francois Hollande, paying tribute Wednesday to the soldiers who took part in the D-Day invasion, spoke of the European unity born from the horrors of World War II — and that is strained today by financial crisis and tensions over Muslim immigration.

"Normandy is covered with the tombs of children from all of Europe. All Europeans ... should be capable, 68 years later, of bringing Europe peace, solidarity and progress," he said. "Only the emergence of a common European conscience will protect us against the return of hate."

Lost my grandfather's brother in Normandy. His name was coincidentally Norman.

I had to think of D-Day when terrorists were saying the US doesn't have the resolve to face them. Really?!

Can't update the OP, but today's is a significant day for the Allies.

Yes it is, good bump.

Those crazy ****ing Scotts...

Yep, best part of the whole movie. I'd love the chance to have a beer with him or Bill Guarnere.

One of the greatest opportunities I've had in the Army was jumping into Normandy back in 2002. We jumped on St. Mere Eglise Drop Zone, and then toured the battlefield the next three days. The French people may have a bad attitude in other parts of the country- but I can tell you that we were treated with the utmost generosity and respect while in Normandy. And yes, I had many many free alcoholic beverages.

Those people did not forget.

Greatest sacrifice by the greatest generation.

those dudes were the badest MFers on the planet. probalby still.

dudes sacked up, and ran full bore into near-certain death.

I can't imagine. If it was 1% of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.....