D Day - 80 years ago

[bmccowan]

I watched the D Day ceremony live this morning. If you did not get a chance to see it, search out a replay. Very stirring - very important.
Attached is a photo of my Uncle's Air Corps Squadron getting briefed on their mission. He was a navigator on a B-17. He is the one in the second row, to the right, with his mouth wide open. "Holy shit" is what he remembered saying. He survived the war, flying missions in both the Euro and Asian theaters. My other Uncle took shrapnel to the head on Omaha Beach and spent the rest of the war in a hospital ward. They both passed away a few years back, but would have loved to have been at the ceremony. 

[Willabe]

In WWII, my father spent his 1st 6 months sailing down to Australia and camped at an Aussie dog racing track waiting for the US Air force to soften up the east end of New Guinea so they could bring in the US troupes. Then he spent the next 3 years in New Guinea. Dad told me towards the end of the WWII Pacific theater war, because the US had pushed the Japanese navy back north that they left New Guinea and they were shipped to leapers island. I don't remember the islands real name. My uncle told me that our air force burned the island to a cinder before letting our troops go aground, for fear of our troops getting leprosy. I don't know if that's true.   

And my uncle was in the Marines and sailed from the Philippines down to New Zealand and back up to the Philippines.

My father and uncle would sometimes say "oh that poor guy had shell shock", PTSD. Through the years I came to realize that my father (and probably my uncle too) had PTSD. My father would at times be somewhere else. He was experiencing being in a different place than he was. He would talk out loud and when it was really bad he would answer himself too.And it took a bit to snap him out of it. 

But I miss those guys dearly and deeply.   

[tubeswell]

One of my uncles was a Bren Gunner in the 24th NZ Infantry Battalion. Was wounded through the mouth and neck by shrapnel at Casino but recovered and went on to see action right to the end of the war, then was in J-force afterwards. Started as a private and finished as a Sargent. He had some war stories but only one tooth left in the front of his face. Many of his buddies were KIA and that took its toll on him although he’d never admit it. The whole adventure was something that stayed with him for the rest of his life. When he finally passed he knew the end was coming and he left a hand scrawled note saying, ‘If I had my time again, I’d do it all again’.

[Willabe]

They were ALL marked by that war, ALL of them.