I'm just listening now to NPR coverage of D-Day. I'd forgotten that your dad was there, and just how young he was. My nephews just turned 17 and I can't even imagine them doing that! They just left for summer camp, and my sister is worried about white water rafting!
I do wonder how many more of these memorials will have actual veterans. It's been 70 years. As a teenager I knew someone who was there too, and he's been gone for years now. It seems so much more real when you hear the stories from someone first hand. (J told me once that the reason he was there to tell me those stories was that he did his best to avoid actual heroics)
I did have a first-hand connection to another odd and mostly forgotten WWII story-- The Japanese Balloon Bombs. It was a sunday school picnic, five children and one adult were killed. I believe it was the only fatal attack on the mainland US. Archie Mitchell (who survived the attack only disappear 15 years later in Viet Nam) was the brother of a friend of the family. I wonder how much longer before all these stories are just forgotten?
Eighteen still seems like children to us, doesn't it?
Being able to talk to people who were actually there was important - now it is important to write down what they said, for history is really as much about the individual at ground level as the big picture.
My 'voice of WW2' was not my Dad - who died too young, before he felt like talking about such things, or I thought to ask. It was, rather, my Uncle Eric - but I wish I had more tales from my dad.
I gather that this is the last official commemoration of D-Day at which they expect there to be veterans - although many of those who are still alive say they hope to return again.
ETA - I forgot to say that I saw a programme about the Balloon Attacks on TV a few years ago - how fascinating to have a person to person link to that.
I do wonder how many more of these memorials will have actual veterans. It's been 70 years. As a teenager I knew someone who was there too, and he's been gone for years now. It seems so much more real when you hear the stories from someone first hand. (J told me once that the reason he was there to tell me those stories was that he did his best to avoid actual heroics)
I did have a first-hand connection to another odd and mostly forgotten WWII story-- The Japanese Balloon Bombs. It was a sunday school picnic, five children and one adult were killed. I believe it was the only fatal attack on the mainland US. Archie Mitchell (who survived the attack only disappear 15 years later in Viet Nam) was the brother of a friend of the family. I wonder how much longer before all these stories are just forgotten?
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Being able to talk to people who were actually there was important - now it is important to write down what they said, for history is really as much about the individual at ground level as the big picture.
My 'voice of WW2' was not my Dad - who died too young, before he felt like talking about such things, or I thought to ask. It was, rather, my Uncle Eric - but I wish I had more tales from my dad.
I gather that this is the last official commemoration of D-Day at which they expect there to be veterans - although many of those who are still alive say they hope to return again.
ETA - I forgot to say that I saw a programme about the Balloon Attacks on TV a few years ago - how fascinating to have a person to person link to that.
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