Thursday, June 08, 2017

Stand Up and Salute

It was some seven decades ago, on June 6th, 1944, that D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history occurred.
An armada of 7,000 ships supported the landing of more than 150,000 Allied soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, to begin retaking the European continent from Nazi Germany.
For most of us, D-Day is something out of a history book. But, it’s a memory for Art Peterson. The now 93 year old Santa Barbara man was a paratrooper in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division during World War II.
It was his first time in combat, and says the plane flight from England into Nazi-controlled for the invasion was pretty scary. He says they could see tracer bullets flying around the transport plane he was in, and as he watched out a window, he saw another plane carrying his best friend get hit, and explode.
But, he says once they parachuted out of the plane, their role in the Normany invasion was a piece of cake.
Peterson fought in some of the biggest battles in the European war, even though he had a hard time getting into the military. He was just 17 years old, and finishing up high school when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the U.S. into World War II. He wanted to be a Marine, but was turned down. The Navy and Army also said no, for the same reason. While Peterson grew up in the United States, he was born in Mexico, and wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time. Finally, he got his chance to serve after being drafted.
Peterson was sent to basic training at Camp Roberts, which is on the San Luis Obispo/Monterey County Line. While there, he heard they were recruiting for paratroopers, so he volunteered, and was set to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. His unit, Fox Company, arrived in England in late 1943 for final training before the invasion.
Peterson says it was while he was in England, he had some of the toughest duty of the war, helping to recover the bodies of British civilians killed in the Germans incessant bombing of London. He still gets choked up, saying because it was civilians, it was worse than anything he ever experienced in combat.
He came through D-Day without a scratch, but wasn’t so lucky three months later as the 101st Airborne pushed into German occupied Holland. He was preparing to jump out of a plane with his unit when a bullet came through the floor of the plane, and hit him in the leg, severely wounding him. His sergeant ordered him not to jump, and to take the plane back to England.
But, five minutes later, the plane was hit again by fire from the ground, and he and the crew had to bail out to safety. He spent three months in the hospital recovering from his injury.
Then, three months later, he found himself in the middle of a third major battle. Peterson’s unit was one of those sent to help U.S. forces in the Belgian town of Bastogne, who had been surrounded by German troops during there last great military offensive, a surprise attack known as “The Battle of the Bulge” He was wounded during the “Battle of the Bulge,” again hit in the leg. But, he has good memories of his role in the battle, making lifelong friends in the community. He has a lasting reminder in Bastogne in his name, a tree in his name.
As Peterson took part in a D-Day remembrance luncheon in Santa Barbara sponsored by the Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation, he noted that age has caught up with the survivors club, and there aren’t many left. He says he’s the only still living member of his squad.
Peterson says despite being wounded twice, he feels lucky to have survived, and is proud he served. He returned to Santa Barbara after the war, where he opened a successful janitorial and housecleaning business. He married, and had two boys and two girls.
He says life has been good, and he says thanks every morning as he wakes to start a new day.

Reproduced from the KCLU article. Be sure to click through to listen to more interesting content. 

34 comments:

Rob Dawg said...

Average wealth was about $4 million for families in the top 10 percent of the wealth distribution, $316,000 for families in the 51st to 90th percentiles, and $36,000 for families in the 26th to 50th percentiles. On average, families at or below the 25th percentile were $13,000 in debt.

The Great Bifurcation proceeds apace.

Cinco-X said...

No talk about the Comey testimony? From what I can gather, they ought to start up investigations on Loretta Lynn and HRC, and drop investigations on Trump, et al

Rob Dawg said...

Comey was a self serving nothing burger. What is there to say?

LBD said...

Comey is working hard on a book deal.

Unknown said...

they ought to start up investigations on Loretta Lynn

I'm no fan of country music..but that's a little harsh Cinco!!

Lawyerliz said...

I get you all hear what you want to hear. The snippets I heard on the news were ok. Hub liked the parts he heard. Hilary is gone. She may be snobby bUT she's not crazy. Trump can't tell a lie frim the truth.
I suppose Glod is punishing me. I'm coming down with a cold

Lawyerliz said...

Guess.

Lawyerliz said...

The clerks of Court in charge of elections in 4 Russian counties got hack attacks, we're they making it up?

Lawyerliz said...

Not in the top 0, but feel like we're doing pretty well. Bet Dawg is in top 10%.

Lawyerliz said...

10% geeze. Definitely in the top 0%.

Lawyerliz said...

My son is prolly in the minus category, due to school loans for grad school, which will go away when in finishes his bondage to the va.
Is he, th u s poor? No. VA pays well, Bennies fabulous. Gets diaability. Cars paid for. Very nice house, wife, reasonable house payment, little owed on credit cards. Good ish savings on the IRA thing. But he's way under water because of house loans.

Lawyerliz said...

They repelled them. NASA gets hack attacks every day, many many times a day. Obviously were have to be serious about that. Also harden most inportant stuff up to military standards from Harrington effect. Grids and such. Not stupid worthless planes.

Lawyerliz said...

Carrington?? ??

Lawyerliz said...

Brevard counties attacks.

LBD said...

Good Morning!

Dancing with the Devil (bankster) when your young is OK. Living your whole life in big debt no.

LBD said...

Which would be more profitable in the long run. Buying your kid a house and car or an education with debt?

I had Russian dressing on my salad last night. A KGB favorite.

Rob Dawg said...

Yes, Carrington. Not as bad as a pole reversal however.

Good morning. More houses in the 'hood on the market. Interesting price variations.

Unknown said...

I don't think anybody would argue that Russia didn't try to influence the election Liz (they've been doing that as long as most of us have been alive)...it's the insinuation that somehow Trump (or his campaign team) was involved that many of us find questionable.

It's been almost a year since NSA/FBI etc have been investigating..if laws have been broken...let's get some formal charges. If not..let's move on. Otherwise..it appears to me that the Dims are just trying to "run out the clock" of Trump's first term with leaks and innuendo.

Cinco-X said...

Argh.... Lynch
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/8/james-comey-loretta-lynch-request-call-clinton-pro/

Cinco-X said...

For the Clinton's, there no difference between a lie and the truth. This is what makes then such effective liars

Cinco-X said...

Who cares about hacks in Russian counties?

Cinco-X said...

You know that's just Thousand Island dressing plus ketchup, right?

Unknown said...

ha ha..I knew who you were talking about Cinco..couldn't resist though.. :)

Cinco-X said...

Yup... I'd settle for a single piece​ of hard evidence. So far... NOT.A.SINGLE.THING

Cinco-X said...

Ya... DYAC... I've been burned before...

Unknown said...

You've got to figure NSA has recordings of every single phone call/e-mail made between anybody on Trump's campaign team and Russian officials. Shouldn't be too difficult to listen to them and decide if any laws were broken.

Lawyerliz said...

But very very lengthy.

Lawyerliz said...

Well I Agee with him on some things like trade, but the rest is so horrible I'd be perfectly happy for them not to happen. About to do Silver sneakers.

Unknown said...

what is lengthy?? Trump has/had a pretty small inner circle..maybe a half dozen people who have any influence with him. I'm sure NSA/FBI identified/isolated/documented any contact between them and Russian officials long ago.

The problem is..is that if the whole thing is a nothingburger (which I suspect)..they wouldn't come out and just say that..what you get is what you see right now..no charges.

Rob Dawg said...

FBI/NSA have a couple problems. They need to scrub all the illegal domestic call monitoring and do it without being obvious. They need to find ways of re-collecting the pertinent conversations so as not to reveal sensitive methods. They need to cover up just how extensively private companies cooperate and/or are compromised.

That's a lot of work that probably leaves them with an empty folder.

Rob Dawg said...

Deep State benefits bigly by keeping a cloud over the Trump administration. They won't clear him regardless.

Unknown said...

but the rest is so horrible

curious what you find so "horrible"?? Enforcing our immigration laws?? Getting out of (imo) terrible agreements/treaties with other countries?? Please be specific..

Rob Dawg said...

Tesla market cap exceeds BMW. TUCKER moment coming?

Rob Dawg said...

New post. Poor Nate.