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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
97-year-old veteran jumps out of plane to recreate his D-Day parachute drop
For most people, a summer trip to France is a chance to relax in beautiful surroundings and to savor the country’s fine food. For Tom Rice of San Diego, it’s an opportunity to relive the time he nearly died jumping from a C-47 Douglas airplane, then was shot at, again and again.
Despite being 97, Rice climbed once more into the bone-rattling fuselage of a C-47 and, while flying over the Normandy fields where he first saw action in 1944, leaped into the unknown.
Those on the ground watched the anxiety-inducing descent as, strapped to another parachutist dangling beneath a stars and stripes canopy, the old man coasted through the sky, another gigantic American flag billowing out behind him.
Reaching the ground with only a slight stumble on impact, Rice proudly gave V for victory signs with his hands and, wearing a 101st Airborne baseball cap, said he felt “great” and was ready to “go back up and do it again.”
Rice, along with thousands of other, was in Normandy to mark the anniversary of the June 6 D-Day military operations that 75 years ago saw Allied forces turn the tide of World War II toward eventual defeat for Nazi Germany.
Most participants were content with touring some of the broad landing beaches — with code names like Juno, Gold and Omaha — that saw legions of young men wade ashore into a barrage of German machine gun and artillery fire to push back German advances.
Under fire
But Rice, who has recreated his Normandy parachute jump several times, was adamant the best way to pay tribute to the fellow soldiers who laid down their lives that day is to step back into the shoes of his younger self and take to the skies.
He was among several hundred parachutists recreating the events of June 6, 1944, many using simple parachutes similar to those used 75 years ago.
Despite the intervening years, Rice clearly recalls his experiences when, as a 22-year-old member of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division’s 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, he was dropped into enemy territory to capture strategic infrastructure to safeguard the beach invasion.
Barely briefed on his mission and burdened down with equipment, Rice was first in line to leap from the aircraft when everything started to go wring.
“I was thinking, ‘let’s get the hell out of here,’ because we were under fire,” he told CNN. “All the thoughts about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it just passed through my mind so quickly and I was so focused on getting out of that aircraft.”
Unfortunately for Rice, to avoid enemy gunfire the C-47’s pilot had accelerated to 165 miles per hour, beyond the safe drop speed of 105 mph, and refused to slow down. When Rice came to jump, the force of the airspeed caused his arm to get trapped in the doorway.
After several comrades had pushed past and out into the air, Rice managed to free himself, but by now he had overshot his planned drop zone, landing into an unknown part of Normandy.
Entire article: https://fox59.com/2019/06/05/97-yea...f-plane-to-recreate-his-d-day-parachute-drop/
For most people, a summer trip to France is a chance to relax in beautiful surroundings and to savor the country’s fine food. For Tom Rice of San Diego, it’s an opportunity to relive the time he nearly died jumping from a C-47 Douglas airplane, then was shot at, again and again.
Despite being 97, Rice climbed once more into the bone-rattling fuselage of a C-47 and, while flying over the Normandy fields where he first saw action in 1944, leaped into the unknown.
Those on the ground watched the anxiety-inducing descent as, strapped to another parachutist dangling beneath a stars and stripes canopy, the old man coasted through the sky, another gigantic American flag billowing out behind him.
Reaching the ground with only a slight stumble on impact, Rice proudly gave V for victory signs with his hands and, wearing a 101st Airborne baseball cap, said he felt “great” and was ready to “go back up and do it again.”
Rice, along with thousands of other, was in Normandy to mark the anniversary of the June 6 D-Day military operations that 75 years ago saw Allied forces turn the tide of World War II toward eventual defeat for Nazi Germany.
Most participants were content with touring some of the broad landing beaches — with code names like Juno, Gold and Omaha — that saw legions of young men wade ashore into a barrage of German machine gun and artillery fire to push back German advances.
Under fire
But Rice, who has recreated his Normandy parachute jump several times, was adamant the best way to pay tribute to the fellow soldiers who laid down their lives that day is to step back into the shoes of his younger self and take to the skies.
He was among several hundred parachutists recreating the events of June 6, 1944, many using simple parachutes similar to those used 75 years ago.
Despite the intervening years, Rice clearly recalls his experiences when, as a 22-year-old member of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division’s 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, he was dropped into enemy territory to capture strategic infrastructure to safeguard the beach invasion.
Barely briefed on his mission and burdened down with equipment, Rice was first in line to leap from the aircraft when everything started to go wring.
“I was thinking, ‘let’s get the hell out of here,’ because we were under fire,” he told CNN. “All the thoughts about what we’re going to do, how we’re going to do it just passed through my mind so quickly and I was so focused on getting out of that aircraft.”
Unfortunately for Rice, to avoid enemy gunfire the C-47’s pilot had accelerated to 165 miles per hour, beyond the safe drop speed of 105 mph, and refused to slow down. When Rice came to jump, the force of the airspeed caused his arm to get trapped in the doorway.
After several comrades had pushed past and out into the air, Rice managed to free himself, but by now he had overshot his planned drop zone, landing into an unknown part of Normandy.
Entire article: https://fox59.com/2019/06/05/97-yea...f-plane-to-recreate-his-d-day-parachute-drop/
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ExpatAkronite
Cascadia Subduction Zone
Worth noting (and rarely talked about) is that French civilians also paid a hell of a price during the Normany invasion--over 60,000 killed (many in the pre-invasion bombing).
https://www.stripes.com/news/specia...rgely-ignored-side-of-d-day-campaign-1.583557
https://www.stripes.com/news/specia...rgely-ignored-side-of-d-day-campaign-1.583557
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sparcboxbuck
What happened to my ¤cash?
Still in final edits... a year later. I’ve not seen recent cuts. The director’s cut was REALLY long. Like, we got our money’s worth when we flew to France to see the director’s cut kinda long. There were three major story lines in the piece, and they all went pretty deep. I, and others, have suggested that she do a ‘survey’ of the stories for the first drop and she’s got enough in the rest of the director’s cut and stuff already in the can to do three one-hour long deeper dives.
As I mentioned, I’ve not seen recent cuts because of the COVID thing. Maybe I’ll ping her to see if she has a new cut online that I can peek at.
Sadly, one of the 101st E company guys who is local passed away about this time last year. Had the opportunity to have an evening with him telling stories prior to his passing. Wonderful man and sadly missed. My wife and I had a commemorative brick placed for him at the WWII museum in New Orleans this past spring. Here’s his Stars and Stripes obit if you’re interested: https://www.stripes.com/news/vetera...emembered-for-his-charm-and-kindness-1.586774
Look him up on YouTube. There’s a bunch of videos of him, he’s a complete character. Some of the best time of my life was spent that evening listening to him.
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cincibuck
You kids stay off my lawn!
I spent most of May 2017 retracing my uncles in their journeys across France and into Belgium and a final week visiting WWi monuments, especially where the First Infantry Division, my unit in Vietnam, had fought. First, you meet plenty of Americans in Normandy and at other battlefields. You also meet plenty of Brits, Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians, all of whom feel a call to be on hallowed ground, many of whom have family connections to these places. Secondly, this was my fourth visit to the area, and each time I have received wonderful treatment from the French. Some of the monuments and cemeteries are out of the way - one huge one was a two-mile drive down a one-lane dirt road - I often had to stop and ask for directions in my horse shit French and wore out the phrase, “Parlez vous Anglaise?” It often came down to smiles, handwaving, and pointing, but always an attempt to get this lost American back on his way. I took that as their way of saying, “we remember and we are grateful.”
In short, I don’t think Americans have forgotten. That’s why many of them were in France, along with me, tracing the paths of glory (to borrow from a Kirk Douglas classic).
Below: Monument marking the boundary line between the First Infantry Division and the 29th ID on Omaha Beach.
In short, I don’t think Americans have forgotten. That’s why many of them were in France, along with me, tracing the paths of glory (to borrow from a Kirk Douglas classic).
Below: Monument marking the boundary line between the First Infantry Division and the 29th ID on Omaha Beach.
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
I spent most of May 2017 retracing my uncles in their journeys across France and into Belgium and a final week visiting WWi monuments, especially where the First Infantry Division, my unit in Vietnam, had fought. First, you meet plenty of Americans in Normandy and at other battlefields.
Below: Monument marking the boundary line between the First Infantry Division and the 29th ID on Omaha Beach.
I took this picture of the monument in 2018:
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Veterans return to Normandy to mark 78th anniversary of D-Day landing
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World War II veterans and other visitors gather Monday in Normandy for the 78th D-Day anniversary to pay tribute to the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the US, Canada and elsewhere who landed there. Several thousand people are expected Monday at a ceremony at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer.
This year’s D-Day anniversary comes after two successive years of the Covid-19 pandemic restricted or deterred visitors. The celebrations paying tribute to those who brought peace and freedom to the continent have a special resonance this year as war rages once again in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer on Monday, US Air Force aircraft are to fly over the American Cemetery during the commemoration ceremony, in the presence of Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is the final resting place of 9,386 personnel who died fighting on D-Day and in the operations that followed.
On the eve of the D-Day anniversary, veterans, their families and French and international visitors braved the rainy weather on Sunday to take part in series of events marking the 78th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
Peter Smoothy, 97, served in the British Royal Navy and landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
“The first thing I remember are the poor lads who didn’t come back ... It’s a long time ago now, nearly 80 years ... And here we are still living,” he told The Associated Press. “We’re thinking about all these poor lads who didn’t get off the beach that day, their last day, but they’re always in our minds.”
Welcomed to the sound of bagpipes at the Pegasus Memorial in the French town of Ranville, British veterans attended a ceremony commemorating a key operation in the first minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy, when troops had to take control a strategically crucial bridge.
Entire article: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220606-veterans-visitors-mark-normandy-d-day-anniversary
World War II veterans and other visitors gather Monday in Normandy for the 78th D-Day anniversary to pay tribute to the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the US, Canada and elsewhere who landed there. Several thousand people are expected Monday at a ceremony at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer.
This year’s D-Day anniversary comes after two successive years of the Covid-19 pandemic restricted or deterred visitors. The celebrations paying tribute to those who brought peace and freedom to the continent have a special resonance this year as war rages once again in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer on Monday, US Air Force aircraft are to fly over the American Cemetery during the commemoration ceremony, in the presence of Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is the final resting place of 9,386 personnel who died fighting on D-Day and in the operations that followed.
On the eve of the D-Day anniversary, veterans, their families and French and international visitors braved the rainy weather on Sunday to take part in series of events marking the 78th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
Peter Smoothy, 97, served in the British Royal Navy and landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
“The first thing I remember are the poor lads who didn’t come back ... It’s a long time ago now, nearly 80 years ... And here we are still living,” he told The Associated Press. “We’re thinking about all these poor lads who didn’t get off the beach that day, their last day, but they’re always in our minds.”
Welcomed to the sound of bagpipes at the Pegasus Memorial in the French town of Ranville, British veterans attended a ceremony commemorating a key operation in the first minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy, when troops had to take control a strategically crucial bridge.
Entire article: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220606-veterans-visitors-mark-normandy-d-day-anniversary
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Today we remember and honor our brave service members who fought for freedom on the beaches of Normandy 79 years ago.
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cincibuck
You kids stay off my lawn!
On 6 June 1944:
Uncle Bobby, 19 and the youngest of the four brothers, sat in a base near Dover. He was part of the grand scheme to convince the German's that the invasion would hit Calais, not Normandy.
Uncle Cliff and Uncle Ray were still in the states, at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and Fort Bliss, Texas, their divisions finishing training before shipping out for England and then France.
Dad, the oldest brother at 32, was an MP in Casablanca, keeping the peace in a port filled with GIs, Aussies and Kiwis, French, Brits, and German and Italian POWs.
Bobby would arrive with Patton's Third Army on D-Day + 17 and immediately take part in the siege of Cherbourg to the south.
Cliff's 75th Division arrived in Wales, Ray's 99th Division in Scotland in early November. Both would move to Plymouth and be shipped to Rouen in early December. They were then trucked to the front lines in Belgium just days before the final German assault of the war.
My grandmother sat in her shiny kitchen on Bremer Ave., just off Springfield Pike in Dayton's east end and listened to her Philco Radio as the news came in on June 6th.
Mom and Aunt Rose stood on an assembly line winding copper wire around the core for generators at Delco Products.
My sister would have been finishing her final days in third grade at Pasadena Elementary in Van Buren Township.
Less than 2-years-old, I was in a playpen at Grandma's.
I can only imagine the mixed emotions each of them felt as they listened to the radio or the PA system and received the news of the miracle at Normandy.
I've been to the beach several times as I attempt to re-trace the routes taken by Bobby, Cliff, and Ray from June of 44 to the end in May of 45. To the spots where they stood and fought, the rivers they crossed under enemy fire, the destroyed cities and villages they marched through, the camps they liberated, and to the end of the war they won.
Uncle Bobby, 19 and the youngest of the four brothers, sat in a base near Dover. He was part of the grand scheme to convince the German's that the invasion would hit Calais, not Normandy.
Uncle Cliff and Uncle Ray were still in the states, at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and Fort Bliss, Texas, their divisions finishing training before shipping out for England and then France.
Dad, the oldest brother at 32, was an MP in Casablanca, keeping the peace in a port filled with GIs, Aussies and Kiwis, French, Brits, and German and Italian POWs.
Bobby would arrive with Patton's Third Army on D-Day + 17 and immediately take part in the siege of Cherbourg to the south.
Cliff's 75th Division arrived in Wales, Ray's 99th Division in Scotland in early November. Both would move to Plymouth and be shipped to Rouen in early December. They were then trucked to the front lines in Belgium just days before the final German assault of the war.
My grandmother sat in her shiny kitchen on Bremer Ave., just off Springfield Pike in Dayton's east end and listened to her Philco Radio as the news came in on June 6th.
Mom and Aunt Rose stood on an assembly line winding copper wire around the core for generators at Delco Products.
My sister would have been finishing her final days in third grade at Pasadena Elementary in Van Buren Township.
Less than 2-years-old, I was in a playpen at Grandma's.
I can only imagine the mixed emotions each of them felt as they listened to the radio or the PA system and received the news of the miracle at Normandy.
I've been to the beach several times as I attempt to re-trace the routes taken by Bobby, Cliff, and Ray from June of 44 to the end in May of 45. To the spots where they stood and fought, the rivers they crossed under enemy fire, the destroyed cities and villages they marched through, the camps they liberated, and to the end of the war they won.
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cincibuck
You kids stay off my lawn!
Robert Capra landed with the 1/16th, First Infantry Division, on D-Day. He sent rolls of his 35mm and 16mm film back to London to be processed. The idiot in London "cooked" the film and much was lost. Several notable pics of his did survive but they are grainy.
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DubCoffman62
Lazy Slob
My grandfather's youngest brother was killed on D Day, don't remember which beach or which division or any other details. There was a picture of him hung up in the living room.
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