What Will YOU Accomplish Today?

Today is the 70th anniversary of D-Day. 150,000 Allied troops threw themselves against the beaches in the face of literally murderous fire. Among the other stories I always recall when the subject comes up is from an interview of a German soldier. He reported firing 10,000 rounds of machinegun ammo-before noon of the first day and having to resort to straight tracer normally used for anti aircraft work. 

2,500 of those troops would never see the light of another day- or nearly half as many as we lost in 8 years in Iraq.

My dad arrived at D-Day +3 and fought his way across France and Germany ending his war at the Berchtesgaden retreat as a morale and welfare NCO signing out tennis rackets and baseballs etc. to other GIs. We have a cool picture of him with a head wound- he looks hard. Was he grazed by a German snipers bullet- artillery shrapnel!? Umm- no. He bashed his head on a gun mount diving for cover when his column got strafed by a German fighter plane. Ha!

One thing I remember dad would mention was the smells- rotten bodies, burned bodies, burning rubber... That really stood out to me when they talked to D-Day vets- they said Saving Pvt Ryan had it all- except the smells. Here is the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan