tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253411084606676420.post6675662511023999993..comments2023-08-21T03:40:23.461-05:00Comments on The Discreet Traveler: From Eire to here: An interludeJ. E. Knowleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02330719789451650544noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253411084606676420.post-75560043349228239492017-06-18T03:42:13.330-05:002017-06-18T03:42:13.330-05:00What a wonderful story! I don't remember that ...What a wonderful story! I don't remember that church but I know when I visited the Normandy beaches in 2000, there were still "Welcome to our Liberators" signs everywhere. The people of that area never forgot the sacrifice of Americans, Canadians, British, Polish and Free French--It is the second-most moving place I have ever been or probably ever will be.J. E. Knowleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02330719789451650544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253411084606676420.post-18561360001683833892017-06-17T16:58:49.506-05:002017-06-17T16:58:49.506-05:00I love your blog ....I was moved by the June 13th...I love your blog ....I was moved by the June 13th story ......I had an Uncle who was born to my grandmother in 1924 ....I never knew my Uncle Joe .... My Grandmother eyes always teared up when I tried to talk about him ..... in the spring of 1942 after graduating High School in January he enlisted in the army.... he became a paratrooper and survived drops and battles from North Africa .....to Sicily ....and up the coast of Italy and then one last drop just after midnight on June 6, 1944 -- his brigade was dropped behind the beaches at Normandy to capture a bridge and hold it -- the village was Saint Mere Eglise (hope I'm spelling it right!) -- they stopped the German Panzers from moving on Utah beach but at a horrendous rate of causalities ....My Uncle Joe was killed in one of those battles ....the people of Saint Mere Eglise buried -- 17 American Paratroopers in the church grave yard next to french resistance fighters -- one was my Uncle Joe -- a battle tested veteran by 20 years old. In 1955 the American Army wrote my Grandmother and offered to return her son Joe to Chicago. I was barely 10 then and was only on the periphery of the family meeting my Grandmother Bess called to decide if my Uncle Joe should come home. The family decided the Nuns of the little Church in St. Mere Eglise had tended all 17 American Graves so devotedly.... they left his body there. The people of that village decorated the American Paratroopers graves on every July 4th. I visited St. Mere Eglise in 1969 on my first trip to Normandy..... I arrived there on the weekend of July 4th and there was an American Flag hanging in the town square and my Uncles grave , as well as those of his 16 brothers -- all had been very well carried for and for July 4th -- all had American Flags and fresh flowers ..... 25 years after the war those villagers still acknowledged the price those kids from America paid on that bridge on the west side of St. Mere Eglise..... there is a small "Airborne Museum"(at least it was there in 1969) a tribute to the paratroopers from the 101st Airborne who liberated the town in June of 1944.......love you UBAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10599128254173764151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2253411084606676420.post-24314355929186405842017-06-14T11:31:23.922-05:002017-06-14T11:31:23.922-05:00What a beautifully articulated assertion of the pr...What a beautifully articulated assertion of the preeminent importance of love in human relationships and in the universe as a whole! We endorse that profound faith with gratitude. Love, Groove & PopAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com