[denny]

A toast to the brave men who assaulted the beaches at Normandy 67 years ago today.

[gordonstrong]

Hear hear.

[MrNate]

I'll raise my glass to that.

[WDE97]

A toast to the brave men who assaulted the beaches at Normandy 67 years ago today.

+1 

The "greatest generation" for sure!

[jeffy]

Those years produced some hard-working people, my Dad one of them.  He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. 
My wife and I visited the WWII Museum in New Orleans Saturday.  They were pretty busy with lots of old men in uniforms and equipment on display, even outside.
(Off topic, but we had lunch in the cafe there, which is a John Besh restaurant.  Everything was themed to WWII, down to the soup service.  They brought the soup from the kitchen in what looked like an old soup can, then poured it into your bowl at the table.  The kids' box lunches were in replicas of 40's era lunch boxes - they even had little toy army men inside.  Volunteers were wondering around in WWII uniforms with fake rifles and canteens. 
Food was excellent.  Best fried oysters I have ever had.)

[gordonstrong]

Those years produced some hard-working people, my Dad one of them.  He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. 
My wife and I visited the WWII Museum in New Orleans Saturday.  They were pretty busy with lots of old men in uniforms and equipment on display, even outside.
(Off topic, but we had lunch in the cafe there, which is a John Besh restaurant.  Everything was themed to WWII, down to the soup service.  They brought the soup from the kitchen in what looked like an old soup can, then poured it into your bowl at the table.  The kids' box lunches were in replicas of 40's era lunch boxes - they even had little toy army men inside.  Volunteers were wondering around in WWII uniforms with fake rifles and canteens. 
Food was excellent.  Best fried oysters I have ever had.)

Check out the museum outside Bastogne some time.  They still have a Sherman tank in McAuliffe Square in downtown Bastogne too.  Oh yeah, there's some breweries near by too.

[ccarlson]

Raising a glass to the fallen and the survivors. That's when we fought wars to win and we did.

[bluesman]

My grandfather served and was there at that time.

Hats off to those brave souls.

I'll raise a pint!

[punatic]

Those guys that did that had to be some of the bravest men that ever lived.  I can't imagine what it must have been like to do that.  The world is a much better place because of their service and sacrifice!

[maxieboy]

Here's to! My recently passed grandfather served during WWII. He was a guard on a ship that delivered one of the atomic bombs for testing at the Bikini Atoll. We have the pictures he took of the mushroom cloud from the ship. Amazing stuff.

[nicneufeld]

[raises figurative glass to be followed by literal, later in the evening]

One of my grandfathers was a Major in the military police, and received the Bronze Star for his part getting the Queen (Wilhelmina) of the Netherlands out of country.  However, I was told this ages ago by relatives and have only very faint details...I could have this wrong.  As I read the history she evacuated continental Europe long before the US was involved, so maybe this had to do with her 1945 trip to Allied-occupied territories.  My other grandfather was a waist gunner on a B-17, served in North Africa and Italy, if not more places.  I remember him telling me of the first time he saw a Messerschmitt ME-262 jet interceptor.  Quiet, mild-mannered, gentle man that raised his family well; he passed on last year.  What's so striking is that having this kind of heroism in one's family tree is not rare, almost everyone has relatives of that era that served in the war in some capacity.  Quite a universal conflict that was.

[denny]

My FIL was one of the guys who hit the beach at Normandy.  He doesn't talk much about it, but some of his stories are almost beyond belief.  At the end of the war, he ended up guarding Weihenstephan, where he developed a taste for good beer!

[hopfenundmalz]

Check out the museum outside Bastogne some time.  They still have a Sherman tank in McAuliffe Square in downtown Bastogne too.  Oh yeah, there's some breweries near by too.

Gordan, my wife's dad was in the 17th Airborne, which came up with Patton's 3rd Army from the South.  He went to McCuliffe's headquarters (now on a Belgian army base on the edge of town) to get orders on Jan. 3rd.  They then went north, and faced Panzer divisions that Hitler had ordered in.  Brave guys, those paratroopers with carbines and bazookas taking on Panzers.

In Houffalize we stayed at a small hotel when the wife and I went to A'chouffe.  There is a PKW V Panther in one of the squares there.  At the hotel they had a picture of it upside down in the river, where it was blown off the bridge  as the German retreat went on.  They said it was the only German tank in Belgium.  Picture on this page a little down on the left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther_tank

[punatic]

Here's to! My recently passed grandfather served during WWII. He was a guard on a ship that delivered one of the atomic bombs for testing at the Bikini Atoll. We have the pictures he took of the mushroom cloud from the ship. Amazing stuff.

That would be a very cool photo to see (hint, hint)  

My Uncle Larry died when the USS Juneau CL-52 was sunk at Guadalcanal

My Dad served aboard the USS Douglas A. Monroe DE-422 in WW II.  He is a plank owner.  He is 85 and as feisty as ever.  We went to a Tin Can Sailors' Association gathering aboard the USS Missouri BB-63 in Pearl Harbor in 2005, commemorating the 60th Anniversay of the Japanese surrender.  Everybody treated him with such respect, like he was royalty.  The Commander of the Pacific Fleet came up to him, shook his had and thanked him for his service.  My dad was blown away by that.  He said, "I was just a kid doing my job..  It wasn't anything fancy, we just did what we had to do to stay alive"

I don't think I could have ever been prouder of my dad.

[bonjour]

No D-Day vets, My Uncle flew B17's.  The one story I remember was after the war.  He had loaded, make that overloaded his plane (he was the flight engineer, it was HIS plane) with POWs from one of the death camps  They were so moved by the condition of the men they had to overload.  They were so loaded they couldn't lift off the ground on take-off.  They ended up raising the landing gear  at the end of the runway so it wouldn't hit anything before the end of the runway.