Trailer Park Casanova
11-10-2007, 07:15 AM
Hope everyone enjoys their Veterans Day.. Hope it's a paid Holiday for you.
We're leaving for the Dunes and Holiday travel, so probably won't be back to HB's for a long spell.
For the 49th Aniv of D Day, some family members and a D day veteran friend went to Normandy Beach in France.
I suggest if you love American History, do the same if you can afford to.
Excellent museums, good food, we found the French locals no worse than people on the NE coast of Florida. Perhaps nicer.
A friend Chick Chimingus, was with the Airborne and was parachuted behind the German lines the early morning before D day.
93 days later he stabbed a guy in a card game dispute and ended up spending the wars duration in the brig.
But,, that's another story.
Chick had stories, as well as my uncle that was fresh outta Mining School in New Mexico, and was a Lieutenant leading an Army infantry unit on the 4th wave in.
Most touching things to see are the museums, the cemeterys both Allied and German.
We found a small French locals chapel that was Norman Rockwell stunning.
Every morning, three 9 year old French school girls, dressed in very French old-culture uniforms, stop off at the chapel, and by candlelite read the names of several American soldiers killed in combat.
This ritual has been daily since the troops moved East off the beach in '44.
We rented a WWII jeep, that was restor'd with a syncromesh tranny (an option until the 1960's and a BFD), and we toured the whole battlefront.
You can still rent WW2 jeeps, and also new jeeps as well. The WWII jeeps, though in good maintenance, are still clunky and slow so hold that thought.
The French love American jeeps and cars BTW.
----
My first taste of combat was the battle of Hue City. A year earlier I was sitting in a high school lunch area in Calif area eating a sandwitch.
Cold Shock for a 18 year old kid.
I was with the Marine Engineers, and was thus attached and moved around alot to various other Marine Combat units that needed bulldozers, earthmovers and cranes,, and most of all, water purification.
Everyone in the Marines is a rifleman first. Your job speciality is a distant second task.
The Marines get lots of the credit for the battle of Hue, as they should. The Army 12th and 7th regiments fought there too I'd like to add.
I hope my kids never, ever see combat, nor any of you or your children.
I'll be taking a neighbor girl, at her request, whose brother was killed in the Mekong Delta, back to visit the site he died.
He was 19 years 6 months old, drafted, in the Army 9 months and 12 days, in country for 6 months and 12 days, and his unit came under attack while on approach to an LZ, which is now a Golf Course.
OK,, off to the dunes and Holiday adventures.
Until next summer,,
Have a good Veterans Day, and good Thanksgiving, and Holiday Season,,
We're leaving for the Dunes and Holiday travel, so probably won't be back to HB's for a long spell.
For the 49th Aniv of D Day, some family members and a D day veteran friend went to Normandy Beach in France.
I suggest if you love American History, do the same if you can afford to.
Excellent museums, good food, we found the French locals no worse than people on the NE coast of Florida. Perhaps nicer.
A friend Chick Chimingus, was with the Airborne and was parachuted behind the German lines the early morning before D day.
93 days later he stabbed a guy in a card game dispute and ended up spending the wars duration in the brig.
But,, that's another story.
Chick had stories, as well as my uncle that was fresh outta Mining School in New Mexico, and was a Lieutenant leading an Army infantry unit on the 4th wave in.
Most touching things to see are the museums, the cemeterys both Allied and German.
We found a small French locals chapel that was Norman Rockwell stunning.
Every morning, three 9 year old French school girls, dressed in very French old-culture uniforms, stop off at the chapel, and by candlelite read the names of several American soldiers killed in combat.
This ritual has been daily since the troops moved East off the beach in '44.
We rented a WWII jeep, that was restor'd with a syncromesh tranny (an option until the 1960's and a BFD), and we toured the whole battlefront.
You can still rent WW2 jeeps, and also new jeeps as well. The WWII jeeps, though in good maintenance, are still clunky and slow so hold that thought.
The French love American jeeps and cars BTW.
----
My first taste of combat was the battle of Hue City. A year earlier I was sitting in a high school lunch area in Calif area eating a sandwitch.
Cold Shock for a 18 year old kid.
I was with the Marine Engineers, and was thus attached and moved around alot to various other Marine Combat units that needed bulldozers, earthmovers and cranes,, and most of all, water purification.
Everyone in the Marines is a rifleman first. Your job speciality is a distant second task.
The Marines get lots of the credit for the battle of Hue, as they should. The Army 12th and 7th regiments fought there too I'd like to add.
I hope my kids never, ever see combat, nor any of you or your children.
I'll be taking a neighbor girl, at her request, whose brother was killed in the Mekong Delta, back to visit the site he died.
He was 19 years 6 months old, drafted, in the Army 9 months and 12 days, in country for 6 months and 12 days, and his unit came under attack while on approach to an LZ, which is now a Golf Course.
OK,, off to the dunes and Holiday adventures.
Until next summer,,
Have a good Veterans Day, and good Thanksgiving, and Holiday Season,,