Happy D-Day, Awesome Veteran Granddad Guy! And To All You Other Ones Too
If you enjoy having deep, loving feelings about people you've never met, check out this tale of the WWII veteran who was lost (and found) in Europe this week:
An 89-year-old veteran who went missing from his retirement home in Sussex, England yesterday morning has been located: He showed up today on the beachhead of Normandy, medals pinned to his coat, to take in the anniversary celebration of the D-Day invasion.
It seems former Hove, England town mayor Bernard Jordan just wanted to celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-Day (check out Wonkette's hilarious post if you want to know how FOX News would've covered the original D-Day.) So why not get on a bus to France, meet up with a younger vet, split a hotel room, and go to the beach? Hell, when you're 89, you probably don't worry about things like "letting everyone know where you're going." Because fuck it, you survived a war and more, and when you want to go on vacation, you're going the hell on vacation.
My grandpa was a SeaBee - Shipfitter Second Class James A. Hill. He didn't talk much about what he saw in the Pacific, but he came home with jungle rot from all the time he spent island-hopping. I know he had an old Japanese battle flag that he kept as a war trophy, and that he was proud to do his duty. He came home, adopted my mom and my aunt, and spent the rest of his life raising his kids and grandkids. Staunch union man, lifelong Democrat, and the must stubborn man I ever knew when he set his mind to something. Been gone 12 years now. I still miss the old curmudgeon.
My dad was a D-Day vet...he passed in 1987. He never really talked much about the war. 25 missions in a B-24 over Germany & Occupied France. As he put it once: "5% didn't come back each mission, and you flew 25 missions...do the math." Of the 12 crews that went over in October 1943 as a part of the 700 Bomb. Squadron (Heavy), only his returned. While doing research in the National Archives, I came across his handwriting on the navigation debriefs for the mission on D-Day. It turns out he was the lead navigator for the Eighth Air Force that morning. He never mentioned it. Days like today, I really miss the old man.