79 years ago today…

A day that is considered to turn the tide in WWII. Operation Overlord, or D-Day. Put out Old Glory a few hours ago. To all veterans, a very sincere thank you!!

Sadly we are losing so many of the greatest generation of Americans. Forever heroes

Saw Eisenhowers message before the mission as well as what he prepared in case it failed. That is Leadership.

Sat this morning for a bit and reflected on the events of today. I consider myself fairly young, but it is hard to fathom that young men (boys) 10+ years younger than I am went through the fires of hell on those beaches to secure the foothold that would begin the end of Nazi Germany. So many young men would never marry, never get to raise a family, and wouldn’t get to see the cause they died for fulfilled roughly a year later.

They truly are the greatest generation our country has ever seen, and we owe a hell of a lot to those who made it back, and those who are still in the cemeteries of western Europe.

Thanks for posting that BifWerm! Its sad how this day isnt more celebrated.

waldo9190 wrote:

They truly are the greatest generation our country has ever seen, and we owe a hell of a lot to those who made it back, and those who are still in the cemeteries of western Europe.

Amen. Can’t imagine going into what those young men did. Bravery just doesn’t do it justice.

KP wrote:

Thanks for posting that BifWerm! Its sad how this day isnt more celebrated.

I didn’t want to drag it there cause it could send us down the wrong road, but I was just thinking the same thing. With so many things we celebrate like national doughnut day, this should be front page stuff.

John Rasmussen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>waldo9190 wrote:</div>
They truly are the greatest generation our country has ever seen, and we owe a hell of a lot to those who made it back, and those who are still in the cemeteries of western Europe.

Amen. Can’t imagine going into what those young men did. Bravery just doesn’t do it justice.

No doubt. Crazy to think about what they went through. Truly thankful for what these men did.

BigWerm wrote:

Saw Eisenhowers message before the mission as well as what he prepared in case it failed. That is Leadership.

Nice post, Cool reading those.

Greatest generation ever, I think has less to do with those who served and more to do with the overall love for our country at that time and the general care for one another. Yes, then and now there were plenty of troubles state side.

I watch a lot of YouTube veterans speak about their service. The ww2 guys I enjoy most when they talk about their lives before they served. How little folks had. How much they appreciated it. How they felt morally obligated to serve. Must’ve been quite the county in those aspects. It’s quite disgusting to hear them speak about the realities of the love for country we have today. Sad how far we are from then, today.

It’s really a treat the more and more these stories are told. I learn more about the culture of the states of that time than I do of the war.

God bless the men and women who served June 6th and the county who stood behind them AND stood for our country before and after!

Utmost respect!
Been drowning in work today and appreciate the reminder ‘Netguy

Those are the men who I call heros. Bravery isn’t even the beginning. I couldn’t imagine and I am thankful for all who were on those shore lines. And all who served

Werm you are right, that is true leadership. Something this country has been severely lacking in decades.

At lunch I looked to see if The Longest Day was on today. I try to watch it now and then to remember.

We think of the greatest generation as the people in uniform but I think it goes way beyond that. What the people in the USA did to support the war effort. Women going into factories, MN iron ore mines producing up to 75% of the ore going to the war effort, Ford making bombers, Chrysler making tanks and Jeeps. My mom said they practiced blackouts in St. Paul. POW camps in several states. I found a cigar box of pencils at my grand parents house that I think they were from WWII era that had some plastic like substance holding the eraser to the pencil because all the metal went to the war.

Netguy wrote:

We think of the greatest generation as the people in uniform but I think it goes way beyond that. What the people in the USA did to support the war effort. Women going into factories, MN iron ore mines producing up to 75% of the ore going to the war effort, Ford making bombers, Chrysler making tanks and Jeeps. My mom said they practiced blackouts in St. Paul. POW camps in several states. I found a cigar box of pencils at my grand parents house that I think they were from WWII era that had some plastic like substance holding the eraser to the pencil because all the metal went to the war.

Couldn’t agree more, and what’s really sad about that is I don’t think for a minute that anything like that would ever happen again. We have become way to split into two sides nowadays that we could not agree on what to do let alone pull it off. 9/11 was as close as we have come in years to being united, and that was a far cry from what they endured. Amazing people back then, we are a weaker version of them no doubt.

My grandpa served in the Navy during WW2. Mostly in the pacific but did get to see the aftermath of the beach landings from the air. I went to see Saving Private Ryan with him in the theater when it came out and after he told me the beach landing scene was pretty spot on, especially with the water being red from all the blood. He passed when I was 18 but I wish I could have tried to get more stories from him. I do have all his photos from the war as well as some training manuals he got. The greatest generation is an understatement for sure. Thanks to all who have and are currently serving.

Without doubt, the greatest generation. Thankful for their sacrifices both on the battlefield and at home. My great-uncle Bill is buried at Normandy American Cemetery. Planning to visit his grave a year from now for the 80th anniversary. He was killed a few miles inland about 10 days after D-Day.

Netguy wrote:

We think of the greatest generation as the people in uniform but I think it goes way beyond that. What the people in the USA did to support the war effort. Women going into factories, MN iron ore mines producing up to 75% of the ore going to the war effort, Ford making bombers, Chrysler making tanks and Jeeps. My mom said they practiced blackouts in St. Paul. POW camps in several states. I found a cigar box of pencils at my grand parents house that I think they were from WWII era that had some plastic like substance holding the eraser to the pencil because all the metal went to the war.

Yes, the country was together and worked together on all these things.

Compare that to today, we wouldn’t be enjoying the luxuries we currently have.

I hope it will be the same for the next generations to come but a lot has to change.
Thank God for those boys and what they did for us.

Joe that’s one hell of a story. Your great- uncle Bill made a sacrifice that is still benefiting people to this day.

I wish we as a country found a way to keep the names of our war dead circulating in today’s world as you can never do enough to appreciate the sacrifice of giving one’s life in service to country. Rotate names on a billboard, put names up at sporting events, on screens at airports, etc. These folks deserve to have their names be apart of our country for the rest of time.

Stanley wrote:

My grandpa served in the Navy during WW2.

Mine did too. He was infantry and liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He died about 15 years ago from cancer.

He rarely talked about his service before he died though. He did tell me that he was not proud of everything he did, even though he was just following orders.

Joe Jarl wrote:

Without doubt, the greatest generation. Thankful for their sacrifices both on the battlefield and at home. My great-uncle Bill is buried at Normandy American Cemetery. Planning to visit his grave a year from now for the 80th anniversary. He was killed a few miles inland about 10 days after D-Day.

My great uncle landed at the beaches on June 8th I believe. He wrote a short memoir about his experience in France during those weeks, it’s a really fun read. He eventually took a potato masher to the legs and woke up deaf and crippled in a hospital somewhere in Europe, at which point he was sent home. Just died about 15 years ago due to natural causes. Wish I had been a little older and spoken To him about his experience.

Actually this could be interesting- I just pulled out the memoir, anybody in IDO related to any of these heroes?

Art Erickson- Hibbing, MN
Wilbur Heutmaker- st. Paul MN
“Spaniol”- st cloud, MN
George Pangel- unknown, page missing from book, likely st. Paul
Rebel Davis- Georgia
Scotty Spunk- Pembroke, Ontario
Johnny Moran- Cincinnati, OH
John Herrild- Kansas
Captain “Hard Tack” Hartage- unknown
Bones- Philadelphia, PA
Novak- Chicago, IL
Jones- Kentucky
Frosty- Tennessee

I’ll list more as I re read and find more.. Could be interesting!

My Dad left high school as a junior to serve in WW2. Came back after the war and finished. Then was recalled for the Korean war. As his son I feel more connected to that generation than any since.

Bones = John Ferry, Philadelphia, PA
Jr. Hokka- Britt, MN
Charlie Gordon- unknown

Realize it’s a long shot but maybe someone has a relative in this list. More to come!

Couple things to add.

I had two great-grandfathers who served in the war. One in the Army Air Corps, the other in the Army. From my great grandfather in the army, I have been passed down his “Short Snorter”. It is a bunch of bills taped together from different countries he was in, and is signed by all the guys in his platoon. It is one of my most treasured family heirlooms, and I want to find someone to frame it in a way that will keep it in decent shape.

Also, a couple years ago I read through “Little Minnesota in WWII” which is a compilation of stories/biographies of 140 service members from little Minnesota towns who never made it home. Great read!

Lastly, just last week (ironically) I got a 1943 steel penny in a lump of change, so that one went in the coin collecting jar. Obviously, steel vs. copper as copper was of such high importance during the war.

KPE wrote:

He eventually took a potato masher to the legs and woke up deaf and crippled in a hospital somewhere in Europe

I could google it, but what is a potato masher?

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>KPE wrote:</div>
He eventually took a potato masher to the legs and woke up deaf and crippled in a hospital somewhere in Europe

I could google it, but what is a potato masher?

Basically a hand held grenade on a stick
DT

Interesting. So you throw the whole stick I imagine.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I could google it, but what is a potato masher?

Stielhandgranate, German grenade from WWI and WWII. Interesting because they will roll side to side on a hill rather than rolling all the way downhill past a target (according to wikipedia anyway). They didn’t produce a lot of shrapnel like a frag grenade, so I imagine that’s how he survived having one detonate so close to him in his fox hole.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Interesting. So you throw the whole stick I imagine.

Yeah, pull cord fuse inside the stick then throw it.