June 6, 201412 yr I can't even fathom. And that's for guys who weren't right up in it. My grandfather arrived too late for D-Day but did spend the winter of 1944-45 in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. He talks a lot about his army days and things that happened and people he knew but he doesn't talk much about that winter. I couldn't begin to say why. The guy spent his entire life in the meat packing business and is to this day, even at 90 years old, a tough, stubborn, gruff old upper midwesterner; even he has a few things he carries with him I suspect. If the weather was as bad as was depicted on "Band of Brothers", he suffered through some brutally cold temperatures while there. Edited June 6, 201412 yr by 4chs
June 6, 201412 yr Author I can't even fathom. And that's for guys who weren't right up in it. My grandfather arrived too late for D-Day but did spend the winter of 1944-45 in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. He talks a lot about his army days and things that happened and people he knew but he doesn't talk much about that winter. I couldn't begin to say why. The guy spent his entire life in the meat packing business and is to this day, even at 90 years old, a tough, stubborn, gruff old upper midwesterner; even he has a few things he carries with him I suspect. Has he ever watched Band of Brothers? If I lived it, I feel like I'd have a tough time watching it later.
June 6, 201412 yr Author Donald Malarkey is the only of those men still living. I plan on starting his book this evening. Read many of the others already.
June 6, 201412 yr Has he ever watched Band of Brothers? If I lived it, I feel like I'd have a tough time watching it later. He has; said he really enjoyed it. The 87th Infantry had its last reunion several years back as there just weren't enough of them left and fit to travel anymore... to that extent I think it was a way to reconnect with that place and time even though he couldn't see the other guys. I wish I'd been older when it happened, but he was named the national commander for a year and hosted the 87th's reunion back in 1998 here in Louisville. I got to go and sit with grandpa and it was neat to hear all those old guys talk so fondly about this guy and some of the things he did. I just knew him as "grandpa" so it was all amazing to me. Like I said, I wish I'd been as old as I am now to really take it all in instead of being 14 and useless.
June 6, 201412 yr Donald Malarkey is the only of those men still living. I didn't even know he was still alive. I had thought Bill Guarnere was the last of Easy Company and that he passed earlier this year.
June 6, 201412 yr An "art installation" from World Peace Day this past September. Two artists enlisted a group of volunteers to etch the images of the 9000 soldiers who died on D-Day into the sand at the site of the Normandy invasion. Check out the gallery of photos HERE.
June 7, 201412 yr The French leaders knew there would many French citizens killed and they accepted this risk to free their country of the Nazis.
June 8, 201412 yr I just watched the "D-Day in HD" and all I have to say is thank you for your service. I couldn't even imagine being dropped into that as an 18 year old, talking about huge balls.
June 8, 201412 yr I was talking to my dad on the phone on Friday, June 6th. He seemed kind of somber and melancholy. I asked him what was up. He started rambling on that it was the 70th anniversary of D-Day. He was not there, but remembers it well. A couple of his cousins lost their life that day. Another cousin lost a leg. Another family from his town lost 2 sons. That was all from just one small blue-collar town in Northern Wisconsin. The devastation was far reaching and widespread across our nation.
June 9, 201412 yr Have driven through Bastogne and can attest a Sherman tank sits in the town square.
June 9, 201412 yr Author I just watched the "D-Day in HD" and all I have to say is thank you for your service. I couldn't even imagine being dropped into that as an 18 year old, talking about huge balls. I recorded it and been watching it today. I really can't imagine.
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