June 6, 1944

I

It's just Rick

Filing Flight Plan
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I'ts just Rick
Please never forget this day.

Brave people died on the beaches, jumped put of planes, were shot out of others so we can do what we do today.
 
This is a day where those men could not be honored enough.

The same goes for those who stormed Okinawa. My father survived that assault.

At Normandy, there were 4,665 dead and over 10,000 casualties according to Wikipedia. At Okinawa, over 12,000 died with more than 38,000 military casualties alone. Okinawa influenced Truman in the use of the atomic bomb. Without it, we stood to lose hundreds of thousands more. Many of us would likely not be here today as a result.

None of the men who fought in either theater can be sufficiently repaid for what they endured on our behalf.
 
I'm embarrassed to say I forgot the day. Thanks for the reminder. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like when those bows dropped and the assault began. Kids, just kids.

There must be a better way.
 
And on this day, June 7, in 1944 my mother-in-law came ashore on Omaha Beach. Army nurse. Let's not forget their service, either.
 
flyersfan31 said:
I'm embarrassed to say I forgot the day. Thanks for the reminder. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like when those bows dropped and the assault began. Kids, just kids.

There must be a better way.
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Just curious if it was your father or your grandfather that was there? I ask as it was my father who fought in the war and I grew up very aware of every little anniversary as he would remind me.

BTW here is a story about my dad's service.

He fought in N. Africa, Europe and then left to be a pilot, failing to get through flight school they sent him to the Pacific just in time to be on the re-takeover of Corrigidor.

He had told me that he was in charge of a small group of Japanese POWs after they captured Corregidor. One of the prisoners made him a box with three Japanese characters on it. The story was that the box probably said 'you stinking American 'expletive''

It was a great bar story that my father told often. My dad passed away almost 22 years ago. I eventually got the box translated but that is not the purpose of this story.

Dad only talked of the good times he had in the service. I knew of his medals and knew after my service you don't those for a 'having a good time' But he never mentioned the reasons he got them.

I was watching Ken Burns' The War not too long ago and they did the part about the battle for Corrigidor. It was far from the fun times that my dad talked about, it was down right horrible actually. Part of the story was about how hard the Japanese fought and in the end there were only eight Japanese survivors that become POWs. Those were the very same POWs that my dad was in charge of and one of which had made the box for him.
 
smigaldi said:
I was watching Ken Burns' The War not too long ago and they did the part about the battle for Corrigidor. It was far from the fun times that my dad talked about, it was down right horrible actually. Part of the story was about how hard the Japanese fought and in the end there were only eight Japanese survivors that become POWs. Those were the very same POWs that my dad was in charge of and one of which had made the box for him.
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My dad would only speak that he was in the assault on Okinawa. He'd never talk about the actual battle.

Much of the battle in taking that island was hand-to-hand. I don't see any man of honor being able to speak easily of looking at another man in their eyes as they take his life, enemy or not.

It wasn't until years after my father died did I learn more about Okinawa and the losses incurred. In other words, I never came to appreciate my father while he was still here. He was considerably more than the gas station owner during many of his post-war years or a security guard during his last few years.

Scott, we're not alone. Many of us never knew enough about our dads until it was too late. But, we can show honor for those men who are still here.
 
My Dad flew B 17's out of Italy in WW2, as a kid i asked him to tell me war stories, he said all his missons were ' milk runs'. Now i know better, one does not earn 3 bronze stars and DFC from 'milk runs". Now understand he never talked about it because he had no ' good memories', I think he wanted to forget it, but never was able. Yet he still made the AF(&flying) a career. i bought the 483rd bomb group history and learned what he really had done. By the way the Air Force lost more men in europe than the marines lost in all theaters. The Army AF also had the highest combat loss rate of all services. Many of those who served will tell you ' The real heroes never came home'. DaveR
 
They died so we can perpetuate the dreams of our ancestors.

Let's please come together to fulfill those dreams, but we can't keep wasting fuel

There are a lot of really smart and creative pilots out there who can make a difference. Please feed your input to me and I'll forward it to Bill Gates
 
06JUNE1944 is the password to two of my accounts. The dang bankers sometimes wonder why that date. It is my opportunity to tell them....
 
KennyFlys said:
Scott, we're not alone. Many of us never knew enough about our dads until it was too late. But, we can show honor for those men who are still here.
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Ken, Scott, and others - you are correct.

My Dad landed on Omaha beach 54 years ago yesterday on D+1.

He joined the AAF, and wanted to be a pilot. But this Chicagoan never had an eye exam before his Army medical. When told to cover one eye, he put the palm of his hand over one eye and pressed the eye closed, and read the eye chart. When he removed his hand, he could not immediately refocus his eye, and failed the test. While he never became a pilot, he remained in the AAF, and was on a B-17 base in England before the invasion.

He landed in Normandy with the 368th Fighter Group. They fought and captured land to establish the first P-47 Thunderbolt base in France. This continued over throughout the summer and fall. In the Battle of the Bulge, my dad was in the area near St. Vithe.

I learned very little of this until I sat with him during his 9-month bout with cancer in 1995. He told me of a hand-to-hand knife fight with a German in a French cemetery, while on guard duty outside one of their air fields. The first and last thing he thought of was that this man was some mother's son. It was very powerful, and I now understand why he never discussed it earlier in life. But I will always regret not making a point of talking to him about his life earlier in my life.

God bless all of these from the Greatest Generation.
 
My father was born in 1935. Too young. My grandfather had a medical condition, 4F. He obviously sent letters to his brothers saying he wished he could fight, because I read a stack of the letters they sent to him (both served in the South Pacific.) Every one said, essentially, "Be damn glad you are where you are. You don't want to come out here."
 
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