Posted on 06/05/2013 6:00:12 PM PDT by Kathy in Alaska
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Great Theme for D-Day!
Thank you for remembering.
Good evening, Sand...((HUGS))...yes, they will always be remembered.
I am off to get a hair cut and then home. Back later.
Gotta run...hair cut night.
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I saw that, Love the pic and the Band of Brothers! Thank you!
Good evening, Kathy...((HUGS))...Check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_and_Marty
An old guy and a bucket of srimp
Did you know this? See below ..
“An Old Guy and a Bucket of Shrimp” This is a wonderful story, and it is true. It is also an important piece of American history.
It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.
Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.
Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.
Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’
In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave.
He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.
When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant .... maybe even a lot of nonsense.
Old folks often do strange things,
at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters.
Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida . That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and now he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.
Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive. Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.
The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft..
Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.
It was a seagull!
Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait . . . and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.
Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.
Reference:
(Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp..221, 225-226)
PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America ‘s first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices than brave men have endured for your freedom.
—
“Kind words are like honey. Sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” Proverbs 16:24
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Good evening, Mac...*HUGS*...hope you had a great day.
Hope your weather behaved today.
Can’t decide if it will rain or not. Tomorrow I go to a day long seminar on payroll law. Should be interesting.
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NORMANDY INVASION
May 1944 had been chosen at the conference in Washington in May 1943 as the time for the invasion. Difficulties in assembling landing craft forced a postponement until June, but June 5 was fixed as the unalterable date by Eisenhower on May 17. As the day approached and troops began to embark for the crossing, bad weather set in, threatening dangerous landing conditions. After tense debate, Eisenhower and his subordinates decided on a 24-hour delay, requiring the recall of some ships already at sea. Eventually, on the morning of June 5, Eisenhower, assured by chief meteorologist James Martin Stagg of a break in the weather, announced, O.K. We'll go. Within hours an armada of 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vesselsescorts and bombardment shipsbegan to leave English ports. That night 822 aircraft, carrying parachutists or towing gliders, roared overhead to the Normandy landing zones. They were a fraction of the air armada of 13,000 aircraft that would support D-Day.
January 1944 meeting of Operation Overlord Commanders, General Eisenhower, Walter B. Smith, Omar Bradley, Arthur Tedder, Bernard Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Bertram Ramsay. The Eisenhower Presidential Library
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I became friends with an old couple at church. Shut ins. Visiting them the first time and making small talk. I noticed that Harry had an anchor tattoo - and I asked,
Oh were you a sailor? Must have been World War II? My Dad was in the Navy in WWII
He answered Yes.
His wife piped in He drove a Higgins boat.
Oh, the landing craft - wow.
The guy seemed a bit surprised that I knew that and looked up and said Thats right.
His wife then said He was at D-Day.
I just sat there not knowing what to say. Shocked with the movie reels playing in my mind, awe at what this guy had done and what he must have seen, and could tell he hadnt wanted to talk about any of it. (But his wife was sure proud!) I just got up and walked over and shook his hand again and said Thanks for your service, and all the sacrifices that you made.
God Bless all of our troops - doing no less heroic and dangerous things today, and still making sacrifices for us.
This project sounds like they have their act together. Wonder if those other guys EVER got it together.
I would say you still “have it”. Good job!
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