d  day  thank you to the greatest generation  we could use them now   rest in peace  art ruggiero

Back in 2020, the 101st Airborne CAB was deployed to Germany as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve. 50 Black Hawk, 4 Chinooks and 25 Apache helicopters had to be flown from a port city in France to their final destination. This took several days. I talked to a young captain who was  pilot in command for one of those flights. He said one of his trips encountered really bad weather forcing one of the Black Hawks to land in a field. The crew found lodging in a nearby town and the local police provided security around the Black Hawk overnight. Next morning the skies were clear and the locals all came out to greet the crew and wish them well for the rest of their journey. The young captain had a stash of 101st screaming eagle insignia that he gave out to the children who were most appreciative. With his stash almost gone, the young captain realised how the memory of D-Day is still alive with the French people and how he must help carry on the tradition of the 101st. I wonder how many kids in America have any knowledge or understanding of the sacrifice.

At a shooting match near Pittsburgh on 6 JUNE 2004, the match director came on the PA and announced that one of the competitors "old Cliff", 60 years before,  had hit the beach in Normandy.   We all cheered and clapped, and Cliff felt called on to speak --  he modestly said "Well, it's not like it was MY idea!"

I have told this every Memorial Day since then, in memory of Cliff.

CHRIS

My favorite uncle was a non-com in the 1st Division and went ashore on Omaha Beach in the 2nd wave (after having been drafted in 1940 and fought through N Africa and Sicily). Invalided home in 1945 after being wounded (for the third time), his barracks bag was surprisingly intact, to include a few pieces of Army-issued equipment that went uncollected, but devoid of a Luger that someone swiped along the way. One of the pieces of gear that wasn't claimed by the "powers that be" was his canteen that he'd carried from that day on the beach until the end. Every year on June 6 he would fill it with water and toast his dead buddies, usually with very wet eyes. One of the things I inherited from him was that canteen.

Guess what I used today to toast those GI's? I'd rather have that canteen than any Luger he might've left me.

My grandmother had a flag in her window with 3 stars, my father, my uncle Gaylon, and my uncle Ralph. Thankfully they all returned safe, they are all gone now, but not forgotten.
Truly the greatest generation, they saw their duty and they did it.
I live in Junction City next to Ft Riley home of the 1st division, there are still plenty of good soldiers.
Mike

Those young me are called the Greatest Generation and have my untold admiration and respect. May God Bless them all. Frank