REMEMBER D-DAY!!!

[BuckyD]

"D-Day Survivor"-

Valiant Air Command's Douglas C-47A Skytrain 'Tico Belle' (42-100591/N3239T) participated in the June 6, 1944 Allied Normany Invasion of Europe. She's taxiing-in after landing @ the Kissimmee, FL airport in this Dec. '99 photo & has been repainted since then.

Here's a link to the plane's history:

http://www.vacwarbirds.org/belle/TicoBelleStory.html

May we never forget the countless great sacrifices made on behalf of freedom. Keep the flame burning ever-bright!

Another link to some 'living color' photo reflections of the time:

http://life.time.com/history/d-day-rare-color-photos/#1

DBD

[C_roundy]

Re: REMEMBER D-DAY!!!

Thanks Bucky. Back when the movie "Saving Private Ryan" was released, I was a contractor working in telecommunications at a large MCI mid-range terminal in W. Sacramento. The owner of the small company that I worked for came out from Maine to see the job site, and I took her to see the movie. She was a happy go-lucky, tall willowy blond young woman, who happened to be an ex-Army combat veteran paratrooper among other things.
Well needless to say, (for anyone who ever saw that outstanding D-day centered movie), I was profoundly moved by it, but even more so because I spent the whole movie holding this female combat veteran who cried on my shoulder through the whole movie, while I took her back to her motel, and while I stayed with her for a few more hours, after tucking her in, 'til she finally fell asleep.
That movie absolutely gutted both of us. I did not cry during the the movie itself, and amazingly she was actually fine the next day, but I found myself having powerful flashbacks of the movie, with tears streaming down my face for months afterward.
The flashbacks were triggered whenever I was in out in public, and it struck me that all the people around me were utterly ignorant of the magnitude of the sacrifices of their forefathers, to give them the way of life that they take for granted.
That initial experience in my life, of helping just one veteran through some of the hurting part of healing, shouldered me with some of the hurt for the rest of my life. I carry it with me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks to her, I am able to recognize P.T.S.D. when I look in a returning soldiers eyes, so that I can make damn sure I'm there for them.

I am more proud and grateful than words can say, for the legacy of enduring freedom that our combat veterans have endowed us with, and bequeathed to us with their sacrifices. God Bless Our Veterans!

Here is a link to some beautiful color photos of the girls and boys back home, building the combat airplanes of D-day. Some of them are ones that our soldiers would have loved to have in their wallets while they slogged across France!

http://pavel-kosenko.livejournal.com/303194.html?thread=22669914

[BuckyD]

Re: REMEMBER D-DAY!!!

Thank YOU, Chuck f/sharing that very-poignant vet story (& the great photo link too), and sentiments honoring the great sacrifices of our military veterans on the D-Day Anniversary.

DBD