FREE WW2.0 Archive – Using rare/unique Video Interviews & Digitized Letters from WW2 and prior Wars to Teach young and old alike about History, Life Lessons, Teamwork and Patriotism.
Not our normal type of post…. But so so so very important……
Friends, try to consider this deeply…..Today was the 100th birthday for a World War II hero, Carl Dekel. Here he is Speaking the stone cold truth… ”We haven’t got the country we had when I was raised, not at all,” Dekel said. “Nobody will have the fun I had. Nobody will have the opportunity I had. It’s just not the same. And that’s not what our boys, that’s not what they died for.”
“People don’t realize what they have… the things we did and the things we fought for and the boys that died for it, it’s all gone down the drain. Our country is going to hell in a handbasket,” Dekel said.
Our thoughts on this… Let’s embrace the trusted values of the “greatest” generation…We need to collectively do better… Enough is enough….
At 9:57 pm on D-Day, June 6, 1944, FDR sat in front of a microphone in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House waiting to begin a national radio address.
Earlier in the day the President had held a press conference in the Oval Office for over 180 reporters. While providing few details on the invasion, Roosevelt expressed confidence about its success. Now he wanted to speak directly with the public.
FDR’s address took the form of a prayer. He had composed it during the weekend before the invasion, with assistance from his daughter, Anna, and her husband, John Boettiger. The text was released in advance so Americans could recite it with him. Roosevelt’s “D-Day Prayer” struck a powerful chord with the nation. Printed copies were distributed and displayed widely throughout the remainder of the war.
Incredible… These 3 Jewish men arrived in Auschwitz on the same day, & were tattooed 10 numbers apart. 73 years later, @sandibachom photographed them meeting for the first time for the Last Eyewitness Project, as free men who survived to build families and prosperous lives.
The enemy win their battles from the air! They knock out my panzers with American armor-piercing shells.
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
That’s impossible! The Americans only know how to make razor blades.
Göring
We could do with some of those razor blades, Herr Reichsmarshall.
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
Allegedly attributed to Rommel regarding the Second Battle of El Alamein, he briefed Hitler on his attack at Alam el Halfa and why it failed. Rommel stressed the superiority of the British Air Force, which is why Göring brought up the question.
Hey Russ—-how are you sir? Russ—I saw that Alvernia is looking for a Director of Infrastructure and
Til Valhalla, Sir: Brig. Gen. Charles McGee, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, died Sunday morning in his sleep, according to a family spokesman. He was 102.
“McGee was a living legend known for his kind-hearted, and humble nature, who saw positivity at every turn,” the family said in the statement. “He spent the last half century inspiring future generations to pursue careers in aviation, but equally important, he encouraged others to be the best they could be, to follow their dreams, and to persevere through all challenges.”
Over the course of his historic career, McGee successfully completed 409 air combat missions across three wars, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, serving a total of 30 years of active service. McGee has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007 and the National Business Aviation Association’s Meritorious Service to Aviation Award in 2012. He was enshrined into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2011.
“Today, we lost an American hero. Charles McGee, Brigadier General and one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airman, passed at the age of 102. While I am saddened by his loss, I’m also incredibly grateful for his sacrifice, his legacy, and his character. Rest in peace, General,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a tweet remembering McGee.
McGee is survived by three children, 10 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.
“As the nation mourns, the family asks that we remember the importance and significance of the legacy he left, all of his fellow Tuskegee Airmen, and everyone who played a role in the support and protection of American democracy,” the family’s statement read.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the US service corps.
After the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940, a Dutch watchmaker named Corrie ten Boom and her family decided to build a secret room in their home. For four years, they would use this room to hide Jews — and save them from the Holocaust.
“The ten Boom family sheltered as many Jewish refugees as possible until they could be transported away to safety. And by the time an informant tipped off the Gestapo in 1944, they had helped rescue more than 800 people.
Ten Boom would later tell her story in a powerful book titled “The Hiding Place.”
Louisiana’s Lawrence Brooks, aged 112, smiled as his daughter, Vanessa, tenderly placed his new garrison cap on his head in the ICU bed. She says it’s what her father, the world’s oldest living World War II veteran, wanted most — a new Army uniform to replace the original he’d lost 16 years ago in Hurricane Katrina.
Brooks was presented with an authentic reproduction WWII uniform and his old unit’s badge during a recent short stay in the New Orleans VA hospital at the beginning of November. Brooks’ health is declining rapidly and he is adamant about spending his remaining days at his home with family. God-willing, he says he plans to wear his khakis this Veterans Day.null
“This is it,” said Brooks. “This is the uniform I wore in Australia.”
Lawrence Brooks, aged 112, holding his 91st Engineer Battalion pin and wearing his WWII reproduction summer service uniform, at home in New Orleans, Nov. 4, 2021 (Kristine Froeba)
Brooks immediately recognized the components of the summer service uniform he wore while serving in the Pacific theater. He was back at his house in New Orleans on Nov. 4, smiling and fondling his cap before placing it on his head. He also held the insignia from the 91st Engineer Battalion, the predominantly African American unit in which Brooks served in Australia, Papua, and the Philippines.
Brooks says he has never forgotten his unit’s motto, and repeats it aloud, “acts, not words.” For historians, the battalion was re-designated the 91st Engineer General Service Regiment late in the summer of 1942. According to Richard W. Stewart, the army’s former chief of military history, the battalion was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for service in Papua and the Meritorious Unit Commendation in the Asiatic-Pacific theater.
90% of these soldiers on the first boats to hit the beaches didn’t live to see the end of the day…look at those faces…some of them never lived to see their 18th Birthday…never voted…never loved a woman…or owned a home…they paid the ultimate price for your freedom…you live your life the way you do because of them….think of that…
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