Had a long conversation with my pops today. 88 year old navy vet from WWII. We discussed invasion of Normandy and his memories of the events. He spoke of his friends in 1st infantry who were on his LCT who hit Omaha beach first. He spent 6 months in Normandy from June until Dec 1944. Talked about General Rudder and he talked about his good pal who was shot up pretty good at top of cliffs at Point Du Hoc his buddy was under Rudder in Rangers 2nd amazing stories. Proud of him for sure.

Likewise, very proud of my Father, Class of 43. It is amazing how much I learned of his WWII experiences in just the last year of his life. The Greatest Generation who saved our way of life did not talk much of their personal experience until their last days. I am so proud of my Father and those he served with....

We should be recording oral histories for our grandchildren so they will know. ADjr (06) and his sister were lucky enough to know their WWII grandfather and hear his stories. Thumbs up for all of them!

pdaddy,

Would your father be interested in having his story, or excerpts of, being used in a 70th Anniversary D-Day exhibit?

AR, what are the details of the exhibit? He might, need to ask him.

Email me at [redacted]. We are currently building a temporary exhibit at the Eisenhower presidential museum.

[This message has been edited by Aggies Revenge (edited 5/6/2014 10:07a).]

First Texas Aggie (Class of '29) to land on Omaha Beach was Navy Underwater Demolition (UDT) W/O James G. Hill.

First wave at 0633 June 6, 1944 (30 minutes before first waves of Rangers and Infantry).

Assignment ? Blow gaps in German underwater obstacles for US landing craft arrival. Army Engineer units were assigned beach obstacles.

Navy UDT's at Omaha (forerunners of Navy SEALS) had a 52% casualty rate. One of three Navy units at Normandy D-Day landings awarded a Presidential Citation.

First few moments of movie "Saving Private Ryan" best describes the horror of 0633 6 June 1944.

Gig'em Class of '29 AMC.

(P.S. US Navy destroyer close-in fire support much overlooked historically in saving-the-day for Omaha Beach landings.)

[This message has been edited by bebopag1 (edited 5/6/2014 12:58p).]

Ty Bebo. Talked about all that with my father yesterday and today. He told me the demolition guys were in there for two weeks and also talked about the Destroyer taking out the machine gun nests - against orders - that saved the day. He arrived at 9:30 am and were told to move 100 yards towards British beaches before they got blown out of the water. started out on the 5th but were called back into port b/c of the weather. Gig 'Em.

daddy...

Great little unknown 77 page booklet:

"Destroyers at Normandy"
(Naval Gunfire Support at Omaha Beach)
by William B. Kirkland, Jr.;
published by Navy Museum Foundation, Washington Navy Yard, D.C.

Can be ordered via:
Naval Historical Foundation
1306 Dahlgren Avenue SE
Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5055
info@navyhistory.org
http://www.navyhistory.org

Destroyer USS Frankford really was the backbone of cleaning-out those MG42 nests. From page 76, a quote from Army Sergeant James E. King of the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion later wrote to the crew of the USS Frankford..."I am now firmly convinced that our supporting naval fire got us in; that without that gunfire we positively could not have crossed the beaches."...

Thrity-three American and three British destroyers were engaged at the Normandy beaches.



[This message has been edited by bebopag1 (edited 5/6/2014 2:53p).]

We are going to be displaying a mess tray recovered from the USS Meredith, one of the destroyers that provided naval gunfire that day. She hit a mine on the 7th and then had her seams spilt when a rare Luftwaffe attack made it through the fighter screen a few days later.

thanks guys. Good stuff. Btw, if you have been to an Aggie baseball game and visited Spencer's Corner in right field, that's my son and his grandson.

bop's WWII distant cousin, class of '37 AMC, MOH recipient posthumous.

Great stories that need to be preserved.

Awesome!!! Take notes from him if you can. My grandpa was on an LCI(L) in Flotilla 2 during all 5 major invasions in North Africa-Mediterranean-Normandy. He took troops to Utah beach on D-Day. I asked him about it one time but after he started to break down and sob telling me about remembering the name of every dead soldier he pulled out of the water that day I stopped asking questions. However, I now wish I had asked him to write down some of his fonder memories of his service before he passed. Unfortunately I never did.

[This message has been edited by AEK (edited 5/7/2014 10:41a).]

There is an oral history for WW2 vets at the museum in Austin - Camp Mabry !

Cousin with 36th Div. left his stories there -

don't know if you can get copies.

FWIW and just an idea for any of you who have fathers or grandfathers who are veterans of past wars.

My father was a P-51 pilot during WW2. When my sisters and I were cleaning out 63 year accumulation of possessions from their house after my father passed away, I came across his old foot locker. Some of the items in it - his flight jacket, helmet and goggles, some maps and other such things were donated to a small local museum.

But the prize was a couple of bundles of letters he had written home from England and Belgium, and later Germany. My mother got all the letters to her, and spent the rest of her years reading and re-reading them, and putting together her own journal or scrapbook. I've taken the letters he wrote to his parents, brothers and sisters, his personal diary, and his log book, along with about a thousand B&W photographs and am turning them into an e-document to be put on CD or other electronic media and shared with both of my sisters and our kids. It's a bigger job than I thought it would be, getting everything in just the right place and matching up log book, diary, and letters by date. It will be well worth it when it's done.