Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Jun 7, 2014 0:12:49 GMT 9
Seventy years ago a nine year old lad in San Francisco heard the news on the radio, that Allied Forces had landed on the Coast of France, at places called Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Gold Beach, Sword Beach and Juno Beach.
No, not many knew where those beaches were, but maps were being looked at by lots of people.
The next day the newspapers had maps on the front pages and massive headlines about the landing.
We heard reports on the radio from Gabrial Heater, Elmer Peterson, Edward R. Murrow and a young crew of reporters in England and imbedded with the armies who landed in Normandy.
What we didn't hear those first days was about the casualties.
Soon we began to see pictures in the papers and magazines, as well as the newsreels, of lifeless troops, spraweld on the sand of those beaches.
Allied troops.
FDR made lots of radio broadcasts at the time of the landings and beyond, cheerleading the American people, and urging the workers to continue to increase the output of weapons of war.
In our school, John Muir Elementary School, we were urged to buy more War Stamps and to encourage our parents to buy more War Bonds, to help pay for the defeat of the Axis.
San Francisco had been on war footing since Pearl Harbor had been bombed, but there were celebrations when the announcement of the Normandy Landings were made public.
For me, life went on.
It was the end of the school year, we still had Air Raid Drills at school and I had to deliver the newspapers on my route.
Soon, I would be headed to Ogden on an SP Passenger Train, to spend the Summer with my grandparents.
To-day, Seventy Years on, I look back and wonder where the years have gone.
But, I still remember those "Doomsday" headlines, telling of the invasion of France, and listening to the president and the reporters, telling of the event.
There are thousands of families, in our country and those of our Allies, who remember the telegrams, telling them their son, husband, father, died on the sands of Normandy.
They will never forget.
Nor should we.
www.thisdayinaviation.com/6-june-1944/
Jim Too
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Jun 8, 2014 0:57:35 GMT 9
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF NBA: Spurs NFL: Niners MLB: Giants NHL: Penguins
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Jun 8, 2014 1:37:24 GMT 9
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Post by Jim on Jun 9, 2014 13:19:23 GMT 9
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