D-Day.... there are almost none left..

[Peacetrain]

My Dad was in the 2nd wave on Omaha Beach. He had a hard time talking about it until just the last few years. He died in 2007.. The one thing that has always stuck in my mind, was his description of the sea being red as he waded in. It was red from all the blood in the water of soldiers who never made it to the beach.

Dad, I miss you still .. and I am so thankful for all that you did, and my Uncles who also served.

[WarGamer]

1. the red water is a very common remembrance.

[rurallib]

2. My Father In Law landed at Omaha

He also never spoke of it except once.
His cousin was a nurse who asked him if he would go back for the 50th anniversary of DDay. Boy, did he ever light her up.
"Why in the hell would I want to go back to the place where I damn near died............"

[True Blue American]

10. That is the way my future Husbabd felt.

He died at 56 due to the chemicals, the Doctors words, not mine!

[elocs]

3. My dad landed on Omaha Beach, a heavy machine gunner, would be 104 now.

I have a letter he wrote to his father a few days later where he told him that he almost had 1 less son that day. My dad fought through France and into Germany. He won a Silver Star and a Purple Heart and an Oak Leaf Cluster. His second wounding finished the war for him.

[ironman99]

4. D-Day

My late wife's father was at all the tourist spots of WWII: el-alamein, Sicily, Italy, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge, as a member of the Engineering Brigade. I never disparage those that are called and served with honor. Unlike Cadet Bonespurs, the member of the 7734 typewriter brigade and the thoroughly unqualified sexitary of de fence.

[Jughead]

5. Lost my last one

My aunt who at Peal Harbor as an Army nurse. God bless all my uncles who are gone. My dad a medic saw horrors and my uncle was blown out of a B17, lost a leg, picked up by the Germans and was a POW for a year.

[peacebuzzard]

6. My dad was in the Normandy Beach landing operation on DDay (would have been 107 today)

Last edited Sat Jun 7, 2025, 07:54 AM - Edit history (2)

I still have his Purple Heart and other medals. He was shot in the hand, but continued on with the military operation since there was no turning back. He was part of the army that crossed over to the blue and became the Air Force. After the battles and advances during DDay he participated in under General Patton, he continued on with a peacetime assignment in South America. He was then assigned to more war operations later in Korea.

on edit: his last years were sad. He suffered from alzheimers and had been a widow (Mom passed at an early age). He became involved with a young gold digger that stole quite a bit from us, the original family. In the end he was tossed in a pauper's grave deep in South America. His lifelong desire was to be buried in Arlington. That never happened.

[WarGamer]

7. there may have been 17 year olds there...

Which makes 99 years old the youngest possible D-Day survivor...

Indeed... we're down to just a handful.

[homegirl]

12. My 17 year old

cousin. Color blind so he joined the Sea Bees, served in the Pacific stringing communication lines while Japanese snipers shot at him.
Passed at 93.

Now is the time for those who know their stories to pass them on to our children and grandchildren.

[ananda]

8. My dad said little about the war until later life.

We knew the basics, he was a lieutenant in the navy
flying off of an aircraft carrier in the South Pacific.

He showed us his service gun when we were little,
and talked a little about the war, but not much.

Later on we got him to tell us more detailed stories,
and boy were they good and interesting

He got the Distinguished Flying Cross for his part in
The Battle of Leyte Gulf, but I never knew about till
after he died. The Navy came to his funeral and did
a big ceremony which was very moving.

He never considered himself a hero. He said the heroes
were the ones who died.

[True Blue American]

11. My Husband was wounded

In the second wave at Omaha. They received the Award of valor and their Chaplain told what took place all the way from Normandy to liberating the Camps. About 259 sat and cried on the stage while he relived it. The rest had Childreb accept the awards.

[Evolve Dammit]

9. My mom recalled losing her favorite cousin who was a paratrooper that was killed before hitting the ground.

[TexLaProgressive]

13. My Dad said he landed D+2 or 3 never talked about cambat

His stories like his WW I vet father were about funny stuff. When he was 75 he did relate some things he'd keep in his heart.

It was May 8, " I'll never forget VE Day. A friend and I were riding on a tank when he turned Tom and said, It's been one hell of a war, Charlie.' He rolled of the tank dead, shot by a sniper who hadn't heard the news"

The other was a recurring nightmare. He'd been assigned to a new unit fresh from America. When he arrived he was ordered back to his former unit. Friendly artillery fire had killed many. His job was to try to ID the dead. The nightmare was the faces of the dead begging him to identify them. A soldier's greatest fear is to be mia and their families never knowing what happened.

He died in 2005, I miss him sorely.

[dcmfox]

14. MIne as well

He was only 17, but he was from the West and those soldiers went to the Pacific..He passed in 2012, its truly amazing any are left, I miss him dearly..

[surfered]

15. The Greatest Generation and my father, three uncles, and my wife's father were a part of it. Most of them never talked

about it.

[surfered]

16. We've been to the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach. It was an emotionally moving experience

[BigmanPigman]

17. The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan

are the most horrific moments of any film. When I continue to learn about the war I've learned that those 20 minutes were really how it was, this was not Hollywood fiction.

Director George Stevens was sent to war with his camera and his own film. It was made into a documentary "D-Day to Berlin". TCM showed it a mo th ago and I had forgotten how wonderful the footage was.

https://archive.org/details/George_Stevens_D-Day_To_Berlin_1995_New_Line_Home_Video_Tape

Last night I watched Patton with George C Scott. He did a great job.

The French National Anthem is a fantastic song and this version is the best one I've ever heard...

?si=w-oreviAT_z5XflV

[senseandsensibility]

18. Thank you to your father and all his comrades

Now our job is the save the Democracy they fought for!