 | SubmarineSailor.com Find a Shipmate Reunion Info Books/Video | Binnacle List (offsite) History Boat Websites Links |
| |||
| Bottom Gun BBS | |||
| |||
| At random: "Another Running Gun battle.....Destroyer Gunning, Wahoo Running” -- Wahoo (SS-238) after hitting a convoy, now out of fish, and heading for the barn...... |
 June Sixth 1944Moderators: Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | |
| Forums-> Submarine Discussion | Message format |
dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: June Sixth 1944 At this time in the morning, lads of the 29th Division were crawling across Omaha Beach and working their way up the cliffs that deliniated the coast of France's Normandy. These lads were not the combat forged and hardened veterans of North Africa, Sicily and the Italian campaigns...They were Virginia and Maryland National Guardsmen and Omaha Beach was their baptism in combat...A year before most had been attending their high school proms...working as gas pump jockeys, soda jerks, auto repaiir shop apprentices, farm hands, stockroom go-fers, hardware store clerks and newspaper carriers. Their young lives had been interupted to go save the Free World....and here they were on June 6, 1944 inching their way, crawling over the lifeless bodies of classmates whose sisters they had taken to the movies...Here they were involuntarily peeing in their pants from the concussion created by off shore naval gunfire directed at the members of the Master Race occupying the heights above them. These wonderful examples of American manhood kept moving forward while the boats carrying the frollow-on waves, dropped their ramps and spilled more lads into the water leading to the hell of fifty feet of sandy beach before them. These combat action virgins...took the high ground from Hitler's Master Race combat hardened troops....They kicked the collective butts of the landlords of Auchwitz, Dachau, and Belsen-Bergen....They were the advance men of fresh air and freedom the Allied Forces would be bringing to then Nazi occupied Europe. Blue and POD, that includes you bloody Aussies...it includes Hairball, that Canadian miscreant....it includes all the brave men and women of the joint Allied operations who risked their lives dedicated to nothing less than Unconditional Surrender and the eradication...the total extinguishing of the ideas of Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito and Tojo. The lads of the 29th Division represented the best this nation contributed to the joint effort that brought these animals to their knees. Sometime today...take a moment to remember them...to be grateful for what they did and remember the sacrifice of those whose combat engagement time was measured in minutes and earned them a white marble cross or Star of David, in what became a lovely reverential field on the cliffs they never got the opportunity to scale...I wish I was articulate enough to memorialize these wonderful men properly. We must NEVER forget what they did for us and every man, woman and child who fills his or her lungs with the air of freedom they purchased for us in blood. "Bless em all...the long, the short and the tall." DEX | ||
| steamboat |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1814 Location: Boydton, Virginia | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Very well said, Dex. Thank you. I posted above about my visit to the 309 Bomber Group museum, another "must see" is the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia. The spirit of the 29th Division is there in the concrete. Steamboat sends | ||
| Thomas Courtien |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1892 Location: Patterson, New York | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 I have read tons of books and articles on D Day. The fact that they were able to do it is still beyond my comprehension. Yes, we all owe those men a debt. | ||
| Ralph Luther |
| ||
| COMSUBBBS Posts: 6180 Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Right you are, Tom. A very close friend of my Father-in-Law, Jim Jones, was a Ranger, scaled the cliffs. He got a Silver Star out of his doings that day. He had some stories that would make your hair stand on end, but, for some reason he talked very little about that day. I asked to record his stories, however, he said he rather not and that the history books cover enough of it for the publics knowledge. There must have been some things that transpired that we, the public, need not know. | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: Harry Lester, First Wave OMAHA BEACH When I managed the Pentagon Building in the early eighties I had an Assistant Plumbing Foreman named Harry Lester who had been in the first wave of the 29th that assaulted Omaha Beach....On June Sixth 1984...Harry came to my office and asked to be permitted to take 2 hours off in the middle of the day. Harry was an exemplary man and it was common knowledge that he drove in to the building at night and on weekends to supervise any emergency repairs that his men were involved in. I told Harry that at his supervisory level he should manage his own time and that taking leave wasn't necessary if he was on call by pager...then a kind of a "none of my business" afterthought I asked..."Why two hours?" "Sir, I was at Normandy and served under General Lawton Collins...the man was beloved by us all...He and General Maxwell Taylor, the only surviving Division Commanders, will be here today for the parade ground ceremonies. I want to go up on the wall and see the gentleman who led us." He went on to tell me that in Belgium he was wounded by machinhe gun fire and he was carried by stretcher and layed across the hood of a jeep. General Collins was standing nearby and came over to tell Harry how proud he was of his men and to bum a smoke off Harry...Harry was strapped down, so Gen. Collins reached in his pocket, withdrew a pack of Luckies and his Zippo...lit a smoke for him and Harry and placed Harrys in his mouth long enough for Harry to take a drag and removed it...and repeated that until Harry finished the smoke. Collins shook Harry's hand and told him to tell his folks that he was proud of the service of their son. I asked Harry to leave my office while I made a short phone call. Harry left...I phoned Col. Triplady, Secretary Casper Wineberger's protocol officer...and told him that I had one of Lawton Collin's men inh my office, that according to Harry, had arrived on Omaha Beach (Harry's words) when" there were no footprints in the sand"...I wanted for him to make arrangements for Harry to have to have a face-to-face meeting with Gen. Collins....even if it was just a simple handshake in a corridor when the honorees were moving from place to place. Col. Triplady called back..."How's this Harry fellow dressed?" "He's wearing a typical Foreman's uniform...white shirt with GSA pocket patch and his name embroidered over the other pocket....But, if I could toss a sportscoat on him and put a tie on him he'd look presentable...except for those goddam green pants." "OK fix him up and send him up to Wineberger's office at 11:30." At 13:00 All the foremen and senior management staff accompanied me up to the Parade Ground Wall to be with Harry...but there was no Harry....Across the parade ground all the dignitaries began to arrive...NATO liason staff...Ambassadors frrom Great Britain, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Holland, Denmark, Norway...and on and on....Senators...Congressmen (and ladies)....The steel folding chairs filled up...out front there were two chairs for Collins and Taylor...some PFC brought out a third. Still no Harry. Two limos drove up out of the first one Secretary Wineberger and William Taft III, the Secretary of the Army, appeared...Out of the second came Gen Collins, Gen Taylor and SFC Harold T.Lester who were escorted to the three remaining chairs...The announcer, a non-com from the 3rd Inf Regt...began. "I would like to welcome everyone to this D-Day Memorial Review on behalf of the Dept. of Defense and The Old Gaurd of the 3rd Infantry Regiment....Today we have the last remaining D-Day Commanders Generals Maxwell D. Taylor who commanded the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles" who landed in a night drop prior to the beaqch assualt on June 6th...and General Lawton Collins who commanded the principal landing force on OMAHA BEACH...D-DAY 1944.....Let's have a hand for theswe honored guests....and taking the review today on behalf of ALL ALLIED PARICIPANTS...we have Sgt. First Class Harold T. Lester, First Wave Omaha Beach, 29th Division. (crowd roared)...Tears freely flowed from my eyes as a little noticed gentle man rose and stood at attention, while the United States Army band struck up STARS AND STR$IPES FOREVER and passed in review exchanging salutes with a little man in a borrowed sportscoat and tie....a little citizen soldier who never bragged, complained or felt his country owed him anything...A man, who, we later found out had a Distiguished Service Cross, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart tucked in a cigar box in his garage...As units of the 3rd Herd passed inj review they each in turn exchanged salutes with the little man who represented the living and the dead who paid their dues on the beaches of France 6-6-44. DEX | ||
| Gil |
| ||
| Master and Commander Posts: 1606 | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Dex, Thank you for sharing! | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Frankly it amazes me that on this veterans board...There was very little discussion of D-DAY. We do forget...We do become ambivalent, disinterested and bored with historical contribution. I recently attended a TOLLING OF THE BELL ceremony as the guest of another SubVets Base. The wife of a retired nuke boat officer was sitting next to me and she whispered,"This damn bell ringing and repeating the names of all these submarines is boring as hell. You guys need to get over it and move on." I tried to explain that remembrance and honoring lost shipmates was the reason the organization was created...everything else was icing on the cake. In the last 15 years, I've noticed that memorial services that come WITHOUT headlining entertainment have poor attendance and include more razzle-dazzle, than respectful honoring of the men and women who served and those who gave all. To me D-DAY was a pivitol point in world history. Our selfless contribution to the worldwide crusade to free the world of Nazi aggression, Faschist stupidity and Jaqpanese imperialism may very well represent this nations finest hour. Maybe the generations who grew up watching us agree to a bulls**t "kiss your sister, cut-and-run"in Korea, turn a blind eye to what the Soviet Union did to Hungary, the dispicable "cut and run" in Viet-Nam....the victories over Grenada, Panama and the laughable attempt to subdue Somolia....and now this going on five year tap dance in Islamic brewed gumbo in the Mid-EAST...Maybe those generations, who have only enjoyed the heady experience of military victory George Bush the First brought us in Gulf War I...maybe those folks have grown tired ofr our won-loss-and tied record.....I think a couple of undisputed victories would bring back popular patriotic songs, lines at recruiters offices, pride in uniform.....and veterans interested in honoring and remembering their history, heritage and the debt we owe guys who like those that crawled the landing beaches in WWII to bring us the total victories they handed us. On D-DAY, I dropped into a VFW post on June 6th....the place was filled with regulars playing shuffle board, checking numbers on lottery tickets, arguing about politics, watching something called "cage wrestling" on TV...I sat at the bar getting wrapped around a Miller LITE draft and said loudly,"Anyone know what day it is?" "Yeah, It's opening day for the CRAB FAIR..." "And, Market Tire has a "buy three-get one free" sale." "Red Lobster has a good deal on fried shrimp" "They've got a bunch of teenage honeys in bikini bathing suits washing cars in the Methodist Church parking lot." Nobody said..."It's D-DAY." So I just sat there, drank my beer and headed down the road. SAD....We do forget. DEX | ||
| oldsubs |
| ||
 Historian Posts: 190 | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Yes Mr. Armstrong we do forget. Its the way of all things. We don't have a big celebration for winning at Saratoga or have a day memorializing Antietam (Sharpsburg). We don't celebrate Yorktown nor the Marne. We don't remember there are 53 boats lost in wartime, not 52. We don't remember lots of things. The veterans remember and they should. The veterans build monuments to help them remember and celebrate the achievements and mourn for the lost brothers and sisters. It is for them to remember. They were there, we weren't. We cannot know what it was like so we cannot properly join their remembering. It is for us to mourn for our lost brothers but to try to force others to remember is futile and it will only build resentment. If others care to join, they should be made to feel welcome. But remember this: We and our forefathers-in-arms fought, were maimed, and died to give people the freedom NOT to remember as well as the freedom to remember. In another 50 years the memories and celebrations and memorials of World War II will be as much in the mind of America as the Civil War (War of Yankee Aggression, War of the Rebellion) is today. All the veterans who actually fought in that war will be gone just as will most of us. In 20 years World War II will be as remembered by our youth as the Civil War was remembered by WWII vets. We don't remember the Submarine Veterans who patrolled, fought and died in WWI Very few of us remember those boats and men who lost their lives before 7 December 1941. It may be sad, but in my opinion it is inevitable. It is the way of things. We don't remember the names of those who died at Valley Forge, in the swamps of what is now South Carolina, in Cuba in 1898, because it was before the memory of any living person. It is the way of things and we best get used to it because it is human nature and we are all human Ok, stepping down from my podium Very Respectfully Jim Christley | ||
| Ralph Luther |
| ||
| COMSUBBBS Posts: 6180 Location: Summerville, SC | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Jim, it is sad but oh so true.  | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Jim...There is no name associated with the preservation of naval history, especially submarine history that is more justifiably held in higher regard than Jim Christley. Your writings and your truly wonderful paintings capture history in a way that reaches the hearts of not only long ago boatsailors but not only kindles fire in a young adventurous heart but brings to the lad accurate, easily understood and appreciated unvarnished history. In the world I live in you Sir, are right up there with Samual Elliot Morrison, Theodore Roscoe, Clay Blair, C.S. Forrester, and Dan V. Gallery....One of my most vivid memories associated with my late bride was a wonderful gift you gave us along with John Wynn that was a guided tour of a fort on a prominance on the Groton side overlooking New London...I remember the story of the cowardly behavior of the British commander of the capturing forces. Your narration made the words come alive and painted mental images that made it all totally understandable. You have a gift sir...When are you going to publish your ALLIGATOR book.....I have a standing order for two at the Springfiel BORDERS when it pops up. Once in Wendy Gulley's office I was introduced to your painting and I was quite amazed...then I got to see your boat renditions at the NAVAL SUBMARINE LEAGUE annual meetring and fully recognized the depth of your talent. Jim, submarine historical preservation has profited greatly because you care...and on behalf of all of us, THANKS.....The only thing I can't understand is how you put up with Gumba and Wynn. DEX | ||
| oldsubs |
| ||
Historian Posts: 190 | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Mr. Armstrong Thanks for the kudos, but you lay it on too heavily. But you are known for that. I don't hold a candle to the likes of Gumba and John in their dedication to the USSVI. | ||
| dex armstrong |
| ||
COMSUBBBS Posts: 3202 Location: Alexandria, Virginia | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 Why is it, when you attempt to honor the truly deserving they invariably discount your assessment. Jim...ask yourself these questions...Who do TV producers go to to validate submarine deocumentary facts? Who researches...not cursory computer fact checking but archival archeological digging...more deeply than you? Who hauls around a cranium load of submarine historical information with a greater displacement than you? Who do folks call to settle bar bets, arguments and seeking facts regarding submersibles? Whose word on all things Subsurface Navy is the golden standard? Kemosabi....fill in all the crossword boxes with your name. I am admittedly a fact inflator....have spread more horse manure than John Deere....and have numerous blue ribbons for exaggeration...but not in this case as anyone familiar with your selfless contribution will attest to. As for John Wynn and GUMBA...If their is a bar at the end of the BIG SILVER PIER IN THE SKY where old boat sailors go for assignment to one of those golden smokeboats....You, Wynn and Carcioppolo have permanently assigned stools with your names carved in the seats...and a big busted barmaid to hustle you free beer, forever....Cowboy, Old Gringo, Harrison...and hundreds of others have stools....and aboard ship, nobody hotsacks and there are no shower restrictions or hydraulic rainbows in the coffee. There's just a bunch of old snorkel air breathing coots patting barnmaid fannies and lying to each other. And you'll be there telling us about that Yankee centipede looking contraption that's parked somewhere in the bottom silt of the Delaware River. Jim. I won't discount a word of the above post...if anything the sonuvabitch was far too conservative. There is no greater honor in the world of submarine bluejacketing than being numbered amond those you call friend. Will you marry ME? OK, How bout a soapy shower? (The last taken from a long ago Gary McLaughlin e-mail exchange.) Seriously, Let an old inarticulate After Battery Rat say thanks. DEX | ||
| Darrin |
| ||
Great Sage of the Sea Posts: 561 Location: Belleview, Fl | Subject: RE: June Sixth 1944 And Jim that also goes for this nuke powered sailor, you sir are the expert when it comes to anything submarines especially the diesels. You sir have probably forgotten more about them then I will ever have learned and it is an honor to call you shipmate. Darrin  | ||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] |
| Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread Jump to forum : |
| (Delete all cookies set by this site) | |
| Running MegaBBS ASP Forum Software v2.0 © 2003 PD9 Software | |
