The Longest Day...Part I

It is often spoken that the soldiers and sailors that landed on the Beaches of Normandy on Jun 6th, 1944 were the bravest of all Americans. The cemetaries on the shores of France atest to the sacrifices they made. It is said that Roosevelt and Ike wept when the order was given. As I am sure many of the family members wept at home. For that reason its been called the "Longest Day."

Well, 65 years later another US service member boarded a plane to serve his country in a distant land. Let me tell you....at the end there was plenty of weeping. 06 Jun 2009 was also the longest day!

It started at Fort Jackson with these forboding clouds seen above. Quickly lightening and thunder followed. Our flight could not land and our bags which lay prepared uncovered in a stake truck were soaked. We assembled at midnight just to be told to go to sleep. Our barracks had been emptied of linens but we dutifully laid down and slept fitfully on mattresses worthy of death row inmates at Sing-Sing dodging water drops from the leaking roof trying avoid getting the "crabs."

We woke up and rode out to a hanger at the airport in Columbia, SC and were surprised to be greated by USO and VFW folks wishing a safe travels. That was truly a heart felt surprise. One guy drove all the may from Kentucky just to wish 120 stangers safe travels and Godspeed!

They formed a tunnel and we shook every last persons hand! You can see above! These folks went above and beyond! In fact one older woman was dressed in a red, white, and blue outfit and gave every last one of us a kiss. Wow..........maybe she was the woman in the Times Square post card with the sailor after VJ day!!! Now we know "whatever happen to her?"

The other picture is the group assembling to get flight instruction from the crew.

Let me publish this post and add more pictures to the next.

Fran