D-Day

This guy in the Paris train station was taking his son to Normandy for D-Day.
You're doing it right, Dad, you're doing it very damn right.:notworthy

CBCnews has interactive pictures of D-Day then and now.

Those interactive pictures are impressive

Progress.

A friend's father was a paratrooper who jumped in on D-Day. I can't even imagine what that was like. Our car club hosted a fellow who built an exact reproduction of a WW1 Model T ambulance and is taking it to France this year for the 100th anniversary of the war. Thank you Sarge and all who serve our country - you're the best !

Some guys just can't get enough...

D-Day Paratrooper to repeat jump--70 years later.

DAYTON, Ohio (Army News Service, June 2, 2014) -- Veteran paratrooper Jim "Pee Wee" Martin, who jumped into Normandy on D-Day, is returning to coastal France to mark the 70th anniversary of the invasion that changed the course of World War II.
...
Martin said he hopes to leap from the skies again during the anniversary.

"I truly would want to do that one, because there's no other 93-year-old guy in the unit who can do it but me," he said. Martin was a private first class with the elite 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

I thought that was just awesome.

Ran across this on another site: D-Day + a day or three

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Those guys (WWII soldiers in general) saved the fucking world.

Hard to believe it was 70 years ago. I remember when WWII was like a recent memory, but it seems so long ago now.

When I was a kid, hearing about WWII, it was more recent than the Vietnam war is to kids today. Time just keeps marching on.

Gravdigr;900953 wrote:

Those guys (WWII soldiers in general) saved the fucking world.

amen. I don't think we could do it now. They were really our greatest generation. Makes me worry about the future with Russia and Syria continuing aggressions while we seem to be playing the role of Chamberlain. That being said, I'm beginning to wonder why we have to be the world's police? There is no right choice.

BigV;900705 wrote:

Some guys just can't get enough...

D-Day Paratrooper to repeat jump--70 years later.

Ours was a young whippersnapper at eighty-nine.:)

D-Day veteran parachutes to recreate French landings

Life gets boring, says D-Day parachutist, 89

Remember the Marines in the Pacific did this same thing, over and over and over again.

BigV;900705 wrote:

Some guys just can't get enough...

D-Day Paratrooper to repeat jump--70 years later.

After his jump.

Bravo!

The first show for the troops after D-Day.

"Acrobatic dancer performs for U.S. troops lounging in field at rest camp. Show featured girl dancers, also had two clowns, one of whom had once performed with Ringling Circus in New York. The girls heavily relied on dancing and pantomime because none of them spoke English."

LIFE didn't publish these pictures... wonder why? :haha:

xoxoxoBruce;901005 wrote:

After his jump.

God bless him, the old codger.

Carruthers;900974 wrote:

Ours was a young whippersnapper at eighty-nine.:)

The whippersnapper after his jump, slaps on the beret to meet Prince Charles.

Here's a site with some interesting pictures, then/now, of the Liberation of Paris. When the allies got close, the citizens and denizens of Paris grew a pair and rose up against their captors. BEWARE: There is an auto-starting video ad with sound (French), way at the bottom of the page.

Carruthers;900974 wrote:

Ours was a young whippersnapper at eighty-nine.:)

D-Day veteran parachutes to recreate French landings

Life gets boring, says D-Day parachutist, 89

Your whippersnapper is now 90, and received 2500 birthday cards. :D

I only see a couple cards repeated there. It's amazing that there is such a wide variety of cards for a 90th birthday. Can't be much call for it.

xoxoxoBruce;902137 wrote:

Your whippersnapper is now 90, and received 2500 birthday cards. :D

The Gent pictured surrounded by birthday cards is Bernard Jordan who absented himself from his care home in order to make his own way to the D-Day Commemorations in France.

The 'whippersnapper' who parachuted from the aircraft is Jock Hutton.

I take my hat off to both of them.

OK, sorry, my mistake. :blush: You know how all those white people look alike, especially the old ones. :haha:

xoxoxoBruce;902201 wrote:

OK, sorry, my mistake. :blush: You know how all those white people look alike, especially the old ones. :haha:

It's a phenomenon affecting the middle-aged ones as well!

I speak from bitter experience. :eek:

:yesnod: :lol2:

Yeah, Departure Day again.