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President Reagan's Address at a United States-France Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion/D-Day - 6/6/84. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Leb7ynduCU

69 years ago today my father in law was landing in Normandy France in a glider....crawling through hedgerows....doing his duty. Thank you Ralph "Bud" Thomas.

Today your job is straightforward. First you must load 40 to 50 pounds on your back. Then you need to climb down a net of rope that is banging on the steel side of a ship and jump into a steel rectangle bobbing on the surface of the ocean below you. Others are already inside the steel boat shouting and urging you to hurry up. Once in the boat you stand with dozens of others as the boat is driven towards distant beaches and cliffs through a hot hailstorm of bullets and explosions.... In front of you, over the steel...

I cry every time I watch this video. Watch at 1:49...A soldier pats his friend on the back to encourage him before they attack the beach. I wonder if they survived. We own these brave men EVERYTHING. They loved freedom enough to die for it. It's for them we fight to save this Free Republic...and we will never give up. John 15:13 ~ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

It made the papers, but was covered far from sufficiently, when Elisha “Ray” Nance died a few years ago at the age of 94. You may never have heard of him, but he was well known around Bedford, Virginia, a picturesque town located at the feet of the Blue Ridge Peaks of Otter. He delivered mail in that neck of the woods for many years. But it was for what he did before becoming a letter carrier that he should be best remembered. Ray Nance was one of The Bedford Boys. In fact, he was the last surviving member of...

RUSH: I do want to tell you a couple things about my vacation. I had a couple of fascinating trips. I don't expect anybody to understand this. I really don't. I debated whether or not to even mention or make a big deal out of it. But we went places, Kathryn and I did, hoping that nobody would have ever heard of me. That, to us, was peace -- nobody caring who we were, where we were going, what we were saying, what we were doing -- and it happened. Nobody cared.

One of the Bay State’s dwindling number of D-Day veterans recalls the Normandy Invasion — 69 years ago today — as a day when he and other young men “made a difference.”

The intelligence agency GCHQ has dismissed claims that a coded message from the Second World War found tied to the remains of a pigeon in a chimney has been cracked. A team of Canadian researchers claimed earlier this month that the code contained details of German tank movements which had been sent by a British soldier. However, Michael Smith, a trustee of Bletchley Park, said the claims were "nonsense". He said the Canadian academics had used a World War 1 code from the First World War as the basis of their research. He said: "The idea that a World War...

Remains Of World War II Military Pigeon Ignites Code Mystery Back in 1982, David Martin discovered the remains of a pigeon while renovating his chimney. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the dead bird had a red capsule attached to its leg, what has now been confirmed as a top secret message that was en route to an unknown location in Britain during World War II. Ignored for three decades, code experts are now trying to decrypt the secret message. Though rarely discussed, pigeons were widely used during the war as an old-school way to transmit messages. Among the benefits,...

Juan Pujol Garcia lived a lie that helped win World War II. Nicknamed for the enigmatic actress Greta Garbo, Garcia's own performance was so convincing he fooled Hitler himself. Juan Pujol Garcia lived a lie that helped win World War II. He was a double agent for the British, performing so well that they nicknamed him for the enigmatic actress Greta Garbo. Author Stephan Talty tells the story of this unlikely hero in a new book called Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day. "Pujol was the Walter Mitty of the war," a very...

A statue in the likeness of a Pennsylvania native whose quiet leadership was chronicled in the World War II book and television miniseries "Band of Brothers" is being unveiled near the beaches where the D-Day invasion of France began in 1944. The 12-foot (3.6-meter) tall bronze statue in the Normandy village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont shows Maj. Dick Winters with his weapon at the ready, evoking the massive Allied operation that paved the way for the end of the war.

Welcome to the official site of the National D-Day Memorial. Located in Bedford, Virginia— the town suffering the highest per capita D-Day losses in the nation. The National D-Day Memorial honors the Allied forces that participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 during World War II. With its stylized English Garden, haunting invasion tableau, and striking Victory Plaza, the Memorial stands as a powerful permanent tribute to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of D-Day participants. Surrounded by the beautiful majestic Blue Ridge mountains, this makes for a solemn and respectful tribute for our fallen heroes. D_Day_memorial_imageVisitors can...

Before and After D-Day: Rare Color Photos It’s no mystery why images of unremitting violence spring to mind when one hears the deceptively simple term, “D-Day.” We’ve all seen — in photos, movies, old news reels — what happened on the beaches of Normandy (codenamed Omaha, Utah, Juno, Gold and Sword) as the Allies unleashed an historic assault against German defenses on June 6, 1944. But in color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE’s Frank Scherschel captured countless other, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English...

Extremely rare and striking photos of the days leading up to and after the historic D-Day invasion have been put on display, nearly 70 years after World War II's dramatic turning point. The full-colour images, taken by photographer Frank Scherschel, display anxious American soldiers as they prepared for Operation Overlord, the code name for the Battle of Normandy.

American D-Day veterans are crying foul over a French initiative, approved last month by President Nicolas Sarkozy, to construct over one-hundred 525-feet wind turbines just off the Normandy landing grounds. According to Gérard Lecornu, president of the Port Winston Churchill Association of Arromanches, the giant structures, expected to be built seven miles from the beach, will be visible from the Normandy battleground beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. “Three million tourists come from the world over to the landing beaches. The first thing they do is look at the line of horizon from where the landings came,” he...

It truly was the opportunity of a lifetime. From June 1-8 thanks to an invitation from The Greatest Generations Foundation headquartered in Denver, I accompanied twelve World War II veterans for a visit to Normandy during the 67th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion. For many of these veterans, it was the first time they had been back to Normandy since the June 6, 1944 invasion by the allies. As expected, it was an enormously emotional experience. We crossed the English Channel by ferry from London arriving at dawn with the beaches of Normandy in front of us, creating a visual...

Here is a audio of Laura speaking to a man who fought in the D-Day invasion as a 16 year old. Didn't see much D-Day stuff on tv tonight so I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Survivors of a sunken troop transport wade ashore on Omaha Beach D-Day isn't one of those dates most Americans remember easily. It's not associated with bank holidays, BBQs, parades or other high profile celebrations. There's no Hallmark cards and socially mandated gifts for spouses and lovers associated with the day. It's not even a date in history that is marked with any specific, large scale memorials or tributes. Most occasions, it slips quietly by, virtually unnoticed, save for a few token stories.... like this one... and brief mentions in between the tabloid news we're spoon fed and hyped up on...

D-Day history D-Day: It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitler's dream of Nazi domination. Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men. After years of meticulous planning and seemingly endless training, for the Allied Forces, it all came down to this: The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs. Many of the first young men (most not yet 20 years old)...

Joins American Battle Monument Commission Secretary Max Cleland Texas A&M University Researchers to Announce Historic World War II Site is Open to Public (COLLEGE STATION) – U.S. Representative Chet Edwards joined Texas A&M researchers at the Langford Architecture Building and Secretary, American Battle Monument Commission (ABMC), Max Cleland to announce that historic World War II battle site Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France has been saved and will be open to the public in November despite previous predictions it would be destroyed by wind and sea erosion. After years of research and work to preserve the site, the world can...

Bill Millin, who died on August 17 aged 88, was personal piper to Lord Lovat on D-Day and piped the invasion forces on to the shores of France; unarmed apart from the ceremonial dagger in his stocking, he played unflinchingly as men fell all around him.

I've had these pictures sat on my PC for years so i've finally got around to hosting them. I'm slowly captioning them too, based on translations from a French Flickr account. I think he copied them from somewhere else so i don't feel too bad about using them. I'm not copying word for word anyway. Anyway, hope some of you enjoy them ! http://www.stolly.org.uk/ETO

Some of the best reporting to come out of Normandy in the aftermath of the D-day landings. Even across the gap of years, his words are incredibly powerful. Column 1 A Pure Miracle NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 12, 1944 - Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and...

Sunday, June 06, 2010 REMEMBERING D-DAY + 66 YEARS All things worth having come at a price. Freedom is certainly worth having and the Allied Nations paid dearly for it sixty-six years ago. Take a moment to consider the scene pictured above.Many of the GIs you see wading through the water didn't live but a few moments after that picture was taken. All of them had to be sick with fear; their minds racing with thoughts of loved ones back home and of the job ahead of them. Everything we have and hold dear today was bought and paid for...

The speech, delivered as only Ronald Reagan could, was given on June 6, 1984, the 40th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. President Reagan was standing at Point du Hoc with the surviving Rangers who defied certain death and scaled those cliffs, defeating the Germans. It’s rather bittersweet, that as we remember this great triumph of good over evil, that we must also remember that we lost Ronald Reagan on June 5, 2004. Listening to this great speech, we remember why he is so missed. There will no doubt be any number of WWII flicks on television honoring those who fought...

26 years ago TODAY! "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

Today, 66 years ago, our brave soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, risking life for liberty, in a day that has come to be known as D-Day. Since I am confident that our current President isn't capable of saying any words to commemorate this sacrifice unless he is reading it from a teleprompter, I feel compelled to present the recorded remarks of a real national leader, President Ronald Reagan. This is a video of those remarks by President Ronald Reagan on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, spoken on June 06, 1984 in Pointe Du Hoc, Normandy, France. Thank you,...

A grateful Frenchman.

Leadership: Our commander in chief was to miss the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to go on vacation. Other presidents have missed it, but never at wartime. All presidents deserve a vacation, and no president is ever off the clock. But we are at war, and Memorial Day at Arlington has special significance even in peacetime. Those who defend President Obama's decision to take time off were not so understanding whenever President George W. Bush spent time at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Obama was to be in his old Chicago-area stomping grounds, and those who attacked Bush for taking...

Pictures of Normandy 1944 side by side with today.THIS IS A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION.

War: A Spanish court has charged Venezuela with collaborating in a terrorist plot to assassinate President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. That's an attempt on a top U.S. ally, and calls for a hard response. If it's not predator-drone time, it's time to name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terror. What came to light Monday isn't the first time Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has been caught aiding terrorists, but it may well be the most egregious. Spanish Judge Eloy Velasco named a Venezuelan government official as a key link between 12 FARC and ETA terrorists who were indicted in a 2003...

Amazing collection of photos taken during the WW2 and nowadays. The WW2 photos were taken during the invasion of Normandy on and after D-Day.

Thirty years ago, a young Frenchman walking in Normandy came across an American soldier's rusted dog tag among the rocks at Nacqueville, west of the port of Cherbourg. The name read: "Addison W. Arthurs." Etienne Desquesnes, now 46, wanted to return it to the owner or his family. But who was Addison Arthurs? Mr. Desquesnes wrote to the U.S. embassy in Paris but never got an answer. He finally has one now, and just in time for Veterans Day, thanks to some Internet sleuthing by his friend, Bertrand Goucovitch, 49, an amateur D-Day historian, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. After a...

From Commander Fitzpatrick's site... "Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506Th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the...

D-Day + 20. Years, that is. CBS ran a one-hour special hosted by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It would be his last trip to the Normandy beaches that his troops captured at such terrible cost. Only one memory lingers: Ike waved his hand over a big stretch of beach. “Here, you could hardly find sand to walk on for the American dead.” D-Day + 40. President Ronald Reagan addressed veterans of the invasion at the place where it began. He spoke of the valor of the Rangers, boys mostly, who scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. There were...

Minnesota veteran Jim Carroll has no problem remembering where he was 65 years ago Saturday. "We started taking anti-aircraft fire shortly after we crossed the coast of France," he recalled. Carroll was one of 13,000 members of the 101st and 82nd Airborne who left England onboard close to 900 C47s heading toward the beaches of Normandy, France. "That's our main concern is getting on the ground and be battle ready when we hit the ground," he said. "We jumped down right on top of them." The Bronze Star-recipient said jumping out of an aircraft while enemy fire filled the air...

Sixty-five years after Hitler failed to make Britain’s D-Day effort a footnote in world history, France and America finally realised his dream yesterday. As thousands of British veterans paid their final respects to the men they left behind on Normandy’s beaches, President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Barack Obama presented D-Day – the turning point of the Second World War – as a Franco-American affair Despite months of diplomatic wrangling between London, Paris and Washington, the Queen remained absent from the official commemoration of the 65th anniversary, held at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer. And Prince Charles, without...

President Reagan was a master of stagecraft. But this speech transcends appearances and breaths with sincere and powerful emotions no other President can match.Reagan's Pointe Du Hoc speech delivered on the 40th anniversary of D-Day from the cliffs overlooking Normandy beach in France is widely cited as his best D-Day speech. As powerful and emotional as that speech is, there is a second address he delivered later in the day that is even more touching. The speech delivered on the grounds of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial centered around the story of Private Robert Zanatta, of the 37th Engineer...

On June 6, 1944, the crucial Normandy Landings that formed the spearhead of the Allied invasion of Nazi held Europe occurred. D-Day ultimately led to the victory of the Allies over the despotic Nazi regime. Now here we are on June 6, 2009 and, in its inimitable way, Google has decided to memorialize the important occasion by adding an image on its homepage depicting... the computer game Tetris.Yes, it's far more important to Google to celebrate the anniversary of the invention of the video game Tetris than to memorialize D-Day. It just warms the heart, doesn't it?

It was the time of the Final Solution. It was the time of Hitler, Stalin, Tojo and Mussolini. It was the time when tyranny and totalitarianism, and a form of government determined to dominate every aspect of the human spirit, threatened the world. And all who stood against the conquest of the human spirit were the fighting men of the Allied Forces. June 6, 1944 was a day that great men changed the future. It was the day that American, British, and Canadian fighting men began to pry the claws of Adolf Hitler off of Europe, one finger at a...

At 96, former Army Sgt. Fred Wedhorn still describes himself with the phrase "Freddie is always ready." He was ready six decades ago as a combat engineer on the beaches of Normandy. And he was ready in a flash when he recently learned he was being honored with a trip from Tucson to Washington, D.C., for the 65th anniversary of D-Day. "I'm already packed," Wedhorn declared with a chuckle five days before his scheduled departure to see the national World War II memorial. He's due to attend a ceremony there today. Among the prized items that went with him —...

Sixty-five years ago, Allied troops landed in Normandy to begin the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. The United States lost, on a single day, more soldiers than it lost in Iraq since 2003. This is a good time to ask the world, and especially those parts that denounce American "imperialism," a bit of historical trivia: How much land and territory did the United States demand in exchange for Woodrow Wilson's crusade to "make the world safe for democracy," the liberation of Europe from Nazism, the defense of South Korean independence, its efforts to save Southeast Asia from Communist oppression...

‘Obama Beach’: British Prime Minister Makes Major Slip at D-Day Ceremony "So next to Obama Beach we join President Obama..."

H/T to Old Trooper and his travel updates from Normandy By now, the current POTUS/TOTUS has landed in France... set to address another world audience on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Regardless of the political scrutiny of Obama's performance, this is as it should be. Our CIC *should* be there to pay honor to our heroes, resting on French soil. But I will say this... considering Obama's track record of speeches across Europe as POTUS, and as a candidate, I'm not looking forward to his D-Day Obama comments, and his half-baked pride in America that gets buried under platitudes during...

It's getting harder and harder for libs to defend the "Par-tay" President! Consider that this was reported by the Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times. When these guys start criticizing Obama it's something to talk about! Obamas' trip to Paris raises some eyebrows By Joseph Williams Boston Globe June 5, 2009 WASHINGTON - So much for the Obama common touch. After whisking his wife to Manhattan for dinner and a Broadway show last weekend, President Obama is treating his family to a Paris vacation - paid for, in part, by taxpayers. The White House confirmed yesterday that first...

NEW ORLEANS | It's "A Gathering of the Greatest Generation" - though this year only a small group of that era's aging heroes will commemorate the invasion of France at Normandy 65 years ago. On Saturday afternoon, veterans will attend a National World War II Museum ceremony in New Orleans recognizing soldiers, sailors and airmen who made that invasion a turning point for Allied forces. However, organizers acknowledge few members of an already dwindling population are hardy enough to make the trip. "We won't have a veteran from each state, unfortunately," said William Detweiler, who is in charge of the...

A bullet tore through Staff Sgt. Leonard Lomell's right leg as he stepped into the frigid Atlantic at Omaha Beach. "I had stepped in a bomb crater, and went to the bottom," Lomell, of Toms River, N.J., said this week. "As I came up, my guys pulled me [out] and pulled me onto the beach." It was June 6, 1944 -- D-Day. Lomell and his men were among the first American Soldiers to step out of landing craft and into the murderous German gunfire at Normandy. Today, 65 years later, the nation pauses to remember the largest water invasion in...

Ronald Reagan delivers remarks on June 6, 1984 comemorating the 40th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy.

President Obama's public schedule for Saturday, June 6, 2009 ET/LT 0810 1410 The President & First Lady arrive American Cemetery 0820 1420 The President & First Lady tour the Visitors Center 0855 1455 President & three other leaders stand at overlook with two veterans 0910 1530 President Obama, Sarkozy, Brown & Harper participate in 65th Anniversary of DDay

The sea swelled, the rain came down in torrents, but the skies were clear. Sixty-five years ago, when the first men of the 29th Infantry Division waded onto Omaha Beach, they faced terrible resistance – crack German troops, mines, mortars and artillery. There was, however, one vital element that was blessedly missing. There were no German airplanes flying above them on D-Day. This did not happen by chance. It had been planned long before – at the very start of the war – and it came at a terrible price. Just two years earlier, the Luftwaffe was the strongest and...