Tennessee vs The Maxims vs UT Martin

[BanditVol]

When we lived in France, it was the first place we took visiting family. Even before showing them Paris. Wanted to be sure they saw what was important.

Took them to Utah and Omaha beaches, the cemetery above Omaha, to Ste Mere Elgise to talk about the role the airborne played, and then to see the Bayeux Tapestry ("la tapisserie de la reine Mathilde" the French call it, or just "la tapisserie de Mathilde") to talk about the Norman Invasion of England in 1066 and why 40% of the English language is French words. Heh.

There was a 101st Airborne Division museum in the area of Omaha Beach, I forget its proper name. And it was an okay museum, but what was really cool was that the curator/caretaker of the museum was a veteran of the 101st. I guess it has been that way ever since the 101st veterans paid to create the place. Anyway, this fella, who later in life served as a state senator up in Maine or Massachusetts (don't remember which), he had a glorious personal anecdote to share with the museum visitors who would take the time to ask about his story.

He was a young supply sergeant on the 6th of June, 1944. In the 101st, but he didn't jump/glide in with the infantry, he came ashore on one of the H+2 landing craft, and was (with a whole lot of other officers and NCOs) responsible for pushing supplies and equipment forward to his division as soon as they could locate them.

Well, he ended up in Ste Mere Eglise, the little town where some of the 101st fellas landed. In the movie The Longest Day, Ste Mere Eglise is the village with a small, steepled church where the actor Red Buttons got hung up, unable to escape his parachute. So he played dead every time Germans ran into the square and glanced up at him.

According to the curator of the museum, that may have really happened. Then he laughed and said he had no idea if it did, but the people of Ste Mere Eglise latched onto the idea after the movie came out in the 1960s, and hung a mannequin in a US Army combat uniform from the steeple every June 6th.

Sorry, I've gotten off track. That wasn't the bit I found really interesting about this curator's story. See, after he came ashore, and finally got linked up with the infantry, this supply sergeant (the curator) ended up being stationed in the village for a few weeks. And he became smitten with a young lady who lived in town. After trying for several days to woo her, he finally got invited to her home for a meal with the family. And while he was at dinner, he apologized for his unkempt dress, noting that he didn't have many changes of uniform because he'd lost his personal duffel bag several days back.

The mother of the girl the sergeant wanted to court stood up from the table and walked out of the room. She came back a few minutes later with the fella's bag, which had been up in their attic ever since they'd found it in the street.

What are the chances of that?

You know, that young sergeant, he married the girl. They were still married when I met him for the first time in 1991.

Good story, no? He was one heck of a guy. Looked for him every time we took family back there.

Go Vols!

Very cool story. We did Omaha and Sword, it was a bus tour from Paris,. Spent the most time at Omaha. I made my way over to the Pont de Hac (sp?) which I knew from Reagan's "boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech. Got in a lot of bunkers and pillboxes spent a lot of time on the beach. Toured the cemetery of course. One of my favorite moments was actually before we got to the beach, they gave us a buffet at the Visitor's Center. This was not the Chinese 88 buffet, they spared no expense. I say buffet, but it was a selection of what you wanted from a menu that waiters brought to you plus a table with fruits and salads and soups you could help yourself to, so maybe more of salad bar, but it was all covered by the price of the tour. It was quality food, like pheasant under glass is one I recall. Very good food. And the waiters all thanked us for D-Day. It was really cool. There was a big banner on the wall thanking the Allies also. The French really did appreciate D-Day and do to this day.

 

[KentheOrange]

Nothing I can add to the previous posts except my thanks OMG.

 

[lookoutmtn17]

Thank you OMG. I was merrily reading away until I reached the bottom of the page and scrolled to the picture of the cemetery, and it put the story in perspective for me. My father's generation was/is the greatest generation this country has ever seen, the sacrifices they made are truly incredible.

 

[marcusluvsvols]

Thank you OMG. I was merrily reading away until I reached the bottom of the page and scrolled to the picture of the cemetery, and it put the story in perspective for me. My father's generation was/is the greatest generation this country has ever seen, the sacrifices they made are truly incredible.

So true. Its my Pappaws generation...and they were and are The Greatest Generation. They paid for that title in blood ... both theirs and the blood they spilled. The women back home made huge sacrifices as well...in many ways just to make due. Then they raised the children of those who paid the ultimate price, all by themselves.

I think in many ways the Great Depression just a decade or less prior to WW2 prepared our country for war. Folks were used to doing without, rations of food and necessities, and making the most of what little they had. The warriors and wives of the War were the children of the depression. Today sadly, we are a fat, lazy, and spoiled population who cannot even fathom functioning without their smartphones for a day. Totally unprepared for sacrifice or the Total War required in a global conflict. We cannot even fill our yearly quotas of recruits for each of our Armed Services...now with $50k signing bonuses for enlistment . Not enough young Americans that are not obese and/or drug users. I read that those 2 issues disqualify 70% of applicants alone. Sad .

Hopefully the future of our country doesn't require another Great Generation. It seems those have been discontinued.