semroc

Thank you Veterans of WW2, and all wars.

GeezyRider 

And thank YOU for remembering.

GlennR

The Greatest Generation, sadly none have measured up since.

Steve B.

I'd disagree with that.

The soldiers/seaman/airmen since then have all done their duty in the wars they were ordered to serve in, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan , etc.... The moral reasons for the war were not theirs to judge, they mostly served with honor and often times no thank you or recognition from the Americans they swore to protect.

I see, as you do, that those who served in World War Two did so for a reason that was much more clear cut as to right vs. wrong, thus we view them now as the Greatest Generation. But everybody who served and fought since then, did so following that tradition.

GlennR

Sorry, I wasn't criticizing anyone that servers in the military. My points is more about what civilians have done or not done. The most recent example are those that were protesting about the stay at home orders. It seems most people today don't know what "service to the community" is and are all about themselves.

Maybe i'm wrong.

Anyway, if it wasn't for D-Day we might not be living in the USA.

And as stated, "The land of the Free because of the Brave".

cb400bill

My uncle was a paratrooper on D-Day. He would not talk about it.

GlennR

My mother's 3rd husband was in the landing craft when Churchill sent over. There's a book about it with a picture and he's in the background. The #1 rule was not to talk about the war since he had PTSD and it would set him off.

I can't imagine what they saw and experienced.

DrIsotope

My grandfather landed at Normandy, after having already made his way through North Africa and Italy. He did not speak of it often. His retelling of the beach landing went something like this (paraphrased)

I was in the third wave onto the beach. The tide was low, and the beach stretched forever. Most everybody who came out of the boats before us was dead. There was no way to reach the seawall. Me and some of my buddies laid in the sand behind the piles of bodies. After I don't know how long, two Brit cruisers showed up and blew those bunkers to hell. When we got to the top of the seawall, most of the Germans were dead. The rest just surrendered.

He split time in the European Theatre three ways between being a minesweeper, graves registration, and a lineman (which was his job before and after the war.) Four+ years over there. Came home, went back to work for GTE, retired 40 years later.

Digger Goreman

We only got into this one because our govt hates socialism. BUT, the citizens were viewing this as just another European war and, being an intolerant nation at that, didn't mind German policies. So, how to get them riled? Drag in the allied Japanese with oil embargoes and use their broke code to get them to attack at Pearl Harbor. The govt sicked the people on the "inscrutable alien yellow menace" and, by alliance, their German partners. Voilą!

Real history ain't in the movies or "popular" books....

Just another political holiday.

And, yeah, I was a real military historian, as in U.S. uniform and all that. Paid attention and learned A LOT!

Steve B.

While I think it's entirely possible FDR manipulated the intelligence in such a way as to force the US into a war many in the US didn't want a part of, there's no question in 75 years of hindsight that this was possibly the right move at the time. There's zero question that at some point we were going to be in a war with Japan for all the right reasons, just like we got involved in Europe because we needed to get involved when we did if GB was to survive. There is little doubt that Europe would not be what it is today - free, if GB had fallen. The US could not have defeated Germany otherwise. Japan and Germany were brutal regimes responsible for millions of dead. Millions more would be dead if the US had not acted as we did.

Rogerogeroge

This is the dumbest statement I've read on the interwebz in several months.

livedarklions

Please don't subscribe me to your newsletter. I'm amazed someone could get so much wrong in so few words.

Really not the time or the forum to argue about crap like that.

skidder

I've been inside most of the day doing some electrical remodeling and there is ZERO mention of it one today's national television news (at least on NBC, CBS, CNN and FOX cable news channel). Sad, since that was about fighting back against one of the most racist, extreme nationalist persons to ever walk the earth.

Rogerogeroge

I saw a story today that mentioned that the ceremonies were quite limited and subdued due to COVID-19. Kinda, makes sense, those remaining vets have got to be over 95 years old now. While searching for the story I saw, I stumbled across this.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-52949...an-in-lockdown

scott967

WWII Museum in NOLA opened up last week, but is keeping a low profile. They had a one-hour livestream today for D-Day, but that was it. It's also their 20th anniversary .

scott s.
.

79pmooney

Today is also my (passed) mom's birthday. Dad's was one week earlier. The real Memorial Day. I got reminded every June growing up of DDay and the great wars. (Grandfather saw action that was no prettier in WWI. I did hear about that from him because he felt what he saw shouldn't go to his grave unspoken. I was his first grandkid and first to hear it.)