D-Day (take a moment)

[Jersey Girl]

The veterans who survived, the foreign dignitaries, the monument, and the singing.

Chills.

D-Day 80th anniversary: Tom Jones performs live at ceremony • FRANCE 24 English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaktvsDwZ6I

If you'd like to discuss D-Day, recognize a loved one or tell a story about the landings, please do. Please be respectful.

No current politics, please.

[Manetho]

There isn't a lot of military service in my family. My great-grandfather was a Canadian who fought in World War I and seems to have suffered PTSD for the rest of his life. More recent generations never saw combat. One grandfather was prevented from signing up for the Marines (and probably dying on Okinawa) by a loose log that broke his arms; the other joined the Marines during Korea thinking he had a better chance of survival than being drafted into the Army, but didn't ship out before the war ended; and my father and uncle simply lucked out in the draft during Vietnam.

But I had a great-great-uncle who landed at Normandy and died there a month after D-Day. He is buried in the American Cemetery, but nobody from his family had the chance to visit his grave. His sister, my mother's grandmother, always regretted not going to see it. But this year, my parents are taking a trip to France, and my mother is going to fulfill her grandmother's wish by proxy.

[Gunnar]

My family and I were still living in Stavanger, Norway under German occupation on D Day 1944. I was only 9 months old at that time. Norway was not liberated from the Nazis until May 8, 1945. My family, including I, my parents and my younger sister and brother immigrated to the USA in 1949.

Incidentally, May 8 is Norway's Veteran's Day, and is also celebrated in most of Europe as Liberation Day, except in Russia, which celebrates May 9 instead, due to the time difference.