Both of my parents were in the Army in World War Two. My mother a WAC who ran up on Omaha Beach about a month after the troops landed with her typewriter in hand ( just like those guys in Saving Private Ryan). She was a secretary. One of many who were on their way to Paris like everyone else, to help set up command headquarters for our military. My dad was a young Lieutenant at the time. I know he didn't land on the first rush, he was in the Signal Corps not the Infantry, probably some time around the same time my mom hit the beach. He would never talk about it. The only thing he would ever say was he hurt his back when someone jumped on top of him in a fox hole. I know he has the silver star, don't know what for, but I do know that he too was on his way to Paris to help coordinate communications for command headquarters. That is what the Signal Corps does.
It seems back then everyone was on their way to Paris, and then "we'd take Berlin" to quote Leonard Cohen. To save the world, I guess we did that. What would have happened if all the allies had not fought to do this. If the United States had decided to stay isolationists and not join the war. Oh how terrible it would have been.
I am proud of my folks, who are no longer alive, that they helped in this great endeavor. My dad stayed in the army for a long wonderful career and my mom well she became a wife and mother but always looked back on her time in France as the most exciting in her life. They met there, in Paris,during the war. Strange what war can do.
My thoughts on the 65th anniversary of June 6th 1944, D-Day.
Susan
Yes....it would have been horrible! War is never pleasant, and it's hard to decide when to get involved and when not to...but when the security of your own country and or a group of people is also at stake, it's important to make the right choice.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the many sacrifices men and women around the world have made in order to be free, and stop persecution.
bless your folks and you, my dear.
ReplyDeleteYou are the result of the meeting of 2 heroic people. I miss my Dad--He had been in North Africa, Anzio, Montecassino, etc. with Monty the Brit. His own great general, Mark Clark, noticed the reporters were buzzing off to France away from the waning but still hot conflict in Italy. So he annouced that the first man to swim the Arno River with a rope to start the suspension bridge would be declared the Hero of Florence. Guess who won? He also remembered it as the most exciting time of his young life. He still dreamed WWII for the rest of his life. Here's a poem I wrote about him on 360.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-ygWumdkzer8uA_bHb0qG1cv0S1R523.E4g--?cq=1&tag=dante
Have a good one, & mucho love to the 4-leggeds, too!