07 June 2008

War in Europe


My dad outside of Berlin, May 1945.

The great Dodgers baseball announcer Vin Scully took the media to task yesterday for not remembering the anniversary of D-day:
Normally on the telecast we talk about "This Day in Baseball." I don't mean to sound grumpy or grouchy, but I can't believe what I didn't hear. I listened to the news on the radio for about an hour and fifteen minutes today—did not hear one word about what this day really means. June the 6th, 1944. Do the names Omaha, or Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword, do they mean anything? They're the beaches at Normandy. Sure, today was D-Day, the invasion of Europe, when thousands of soldiers gave their lives so that we could be free. I'll be darned if I saw any real publicity about it at all. Please don't let that happen again next year. Please? Yeah, this day.


Ok, Vin. I'll try to do better next year.

Anyway, I love this photo of Dad looking young and skinny and serious. He was a country boy who loved to hunt and fish and this was the grand adventure of his life. A year later he would be married with a baby on the way - on a whole different kind of adventure.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...that's pretty cool. I love the photos of my dad when he was a Marine. Sadly enough, my husband (retired Navy) had to remind me about D-day.

Count Mockula said...

My grandfather was on the beaches at Normandy, and he gave direct blood transfusions to other soldiers. He lay there on the beach and basically donated blood directly to other men. I always thought that was interesting.

LittlePea said...

Oh I love old pictures. I always have to hold my tongue when I go to someone's house for the first time otherwise the first thing out of my mouth would be, can I look at your photo albums?

Glennis said...

Fuuny, you're right the news didn't talk about D-Day. Although it's been all over Bobby Kennedy's assassination - the coverage of that has been very poignant and moving.

what drives the media like sheep always in the same direction?

SUEB0B said...

G - Bobby Kennedy was an "decade" anniversary and Dday was not. In editors' minds, that counts for a lot. Otherwise we would all have to remember everything, all the time.

Suzanne said...

It's nice to think about a war that ended favorably.

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