This week marks the 77th Anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy so we will be having John D Long on the show, John is the Education Director of the National D-Day Memorial.
The National D-Day Memorial located in Bedford, Virginia is an amazing place to pay respects to those who fought and those who died in Operation Overlord as well as all of the other operations that defeated the enemy and gave us the freedoms we have today.
John will talk about the memorial, their new “Necrology Project”, and what the memorial has in store for visitors both on the anniversary of D-Day and throughout the year. We may even have a special surprise guest…
TRANSCRIPT – Transcript and Subtitles are generated automatically by YouTube and may contain errors.
okay
good evening normandy france live from
lc bunker this is veterans live show
i’m your host ronnie embrace i serve
101st airborne division
in vietnam from december 67 to december
68.
this week is the 77th anniversary of the
invasion of normandy
so we’ll be having john d long on the
show john is the education director of
the national d-day memorial
in bedford virginia the national d-day
memorial is an amazing place to pay
respects to those who fought and died in
operation overlord
as well as all of us other operations
that defeated the enemy and gave us
freedoms we enjoyed today
john will talk about the memorial their
new necrology project
and what the memorial has in store for
visitors both on the anniversary of
d-day
and throughout the year we will speak
with john in a few moments but first i’d
like to let you all remem
know that the program is brought to you
by fallen ever forgotten
vietnam memorials in the usa the vietnam
memorial book
a tribute to those who never made it
home from vietnam
visit forgot neverforgotten.com for more
information or to purchase your copy
let’s go to the timeline
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okay the first brigade the 101st
airborne division in auburn units began
the three-week-long operation
hawthorne dan tank 61
in canton province also on june 2 1966
the first infantry division in auburn
fifth infantry division
began a two-week operation el paso ii in
bin long province
the number one song on may 26 no june
2nd
okay yeah number one song on june 2nd
sorry 1969 was when a man loves a woman
by percy sledge
okay this state in the vietnam war again
the australian aircraft carrier
melbourne slices the destroyer uss frank
evans in half
offshore vietnam 74 people were killed
and around 100 men were rescued from the
water
her bowel drifted off the port side of
melbourne and sank in less than five
minutes
taking 73 of her crew with it
that’s crazy the stern section was sunk
as a target
in subic bay on 10 october 69.
the number one song june 26 69 was get
back by the beatles
and billy preston let’s go to the photo
segment
okay first photo from gene smith charlie
company second of the eighth mechanized
infantry fourth infantry division
1969 70. hello to all your nan brothers
and sisters welcome home
have a great day gene smith or smitty in
the name
paul smiths were smitty’s weren’t they
yeah you’re right sweetie
there you go good one
cecil r ham jr saigon now called ho chi
minh city a bustling city
today with business no scars of war they
copied u.s business ways and respect
americans
kids we gave up we gave candy to grew up
in influence
we influenced them we we may not have
won through politics but we did in the
end
wow look at that can you imagine
skyscrapers
that bridge my goodness gracious
wow it’s only 53 years for me
okay next picture thank you pete
brzezinski on july 4th 1969 in quang
tree province
quang tin province sorry operation le
mans plane
well on a recon mission loh
that’s a loach from aviation platoon
headquarters company first brigade
won our first airborne division i call
was shot down by a rocket lapel grenade
crashed and burned killing all three
aboard
that’s sad
lorenzo jr foot care was critical in
vietnam
this sergeant of the first battalion 46
infantry americal division powers his
feet
after removing tropical boots near truly
in 68
january you’re not kidding john garad
was crazy with those with those boots
always wet
okay john william murphy captured
weapons ninth
rock took down an nva battalion that’s a
republic of vietnam soldier
republic of korea soldiers sorry uh
excellent soldiers
1968 near the train chinese
rpd light machine gun that’s your photo
very good
thank you john
okay the car of the week is
war begins there you go with the french
first thing 1954.
well okay the war between french inn
vietnamese escalates on november 46th at
the ho chi minh
on successful bid for an agreement to
his proposals for autonomy attacks
are launched by both sides vietnam
becomes that east-west war with the
united states applying arms to the
french
to stem the flow of communist advances
in north china
well didn’t been fool into that
okay here’s our guest director of
education of national
day memorial john d long welcome john
thank you it’s good to be here welcome
into the bunker
absolutely telling our audience about
d-day in general and maybe you could
throw some lesser-known facts in there
as well
absolutely d-day of course was the
largest land-sierra operation
for the allies in world war ii the goal
was to
get onto the beaches of normandy
create a beachhead through which we can
build up enough forces to push on
liberating france and on into germany so
the goal
was not to just get some men on the
beaches it was to win the war
and this was the path to victory
uh we weren’t going to win the war on
june 6 1944 it’s going to take 11 more
months after that
but we now can see a way to defeat nazi
germany
after d-day and of course uh it’s just
one day
out of a war that the united states
fights for four years
uh britain canada france fight for six
years
but in that one day there’s so much
drama so many stories so much heroism
uh from the men crossing the beach to
the paratroopers uh and the gliderman
landing
behind the beaches at places like san
marcos
you know it’s amazing that a lot of
people don’t you know
take into consideration that the war was
two
years on before we got involved with it
well it was absolutely
yeah you know the people don’t go from
close to pearl harbor
the british are already planning the
invasion wildlife
ah really interesting okay
all right so tell us about uh how the
d-day national d-day memorial came to be
well the story begins with a d-day
veteran john
robert slaughter bob slaughter from
roanoke virginia which happens to be my
hometown as well
uh he uh came back from world war
ii and one of these veterans that never
talked about it he
you know didn’t share stories he didn’t
tell his kids much about it other than
i was in the army uh but as he got older
became concerned that
his buddies who had died on the beaches
of normandy
uh were being forgotten and so in his
retirement years he got with some of his
like-minded veterans and began a
foundation to put a memorial
somewhere in the united states to to
what happened on june 6 1944
interesting that it became in virginia
because virginia has such a rich history
from the colonies even before the
colonies
to building of the american the
colonies and in forward and then the
civil war
and then everything after and being so
close to washington
that uh tremendous uh that’s a good good
spot to have it
really is some of the virginia units
like the 116th regiment
on the 29th division traced their
heritage back
to the uh even before the revolutionary
war the french and indian war
right yeah there is a lot of history
here and uh
we end up in bedford virginia of all
places
uh for a simple reason bedford had the
highest per capita losses of any
community in the united states
on d-day itself 20 men from bedford
died probably in the first hour of the
invasion
on june 6th uh and that’s coming from a
very small community
and so uh bedford has never forgotten
their sacrifices on d-day
and when the idea for a national
memorial to a great international event
uh you know presented itself bedford was
very quick to
offer this land on which we sit uh and
support and um it’s really the right
place
for it where did the funds come from
uh all private well in the early
development years we did get a little
bit of state money
but uh pretty much everything we do is
funded by
donations uh admissions you know
uh grants and such but we get no
government money federal or state
government money
that’s great and that what size property
is it on about 50 acres
50 acres yes it’s uh
okay so uh and when did it’s when did
the
when was the idea uh sort of thought
about till
fruition oh well actually our 20th
anniversary this sunday
we opened officially on june 6 2001
president bush came to uh to dedicate
the memorial
and in attendance were somewhere around
1200
d-day and normandy veterans and probably
easily as many world war ii veterans
uh in attendance of course in recent
years
uh the world war ii veterans who still
survive
it’s a lot harder for them to get out so
our
our attendance dwindles but even so i
can tell you if there
is a d-day veteran on our site he or she
is treated like a rock star people flock
over there
yeah actually they’re rather cute now to
tell you the truth
yeah yeah they’re all over 95 years old
absolutely i mean how could you not be
outstanding for that
okay we have some photos here from the
memorial matt is going to
put them up to you oh i’m sorry let’s do
a video that you brought in thank you
let’s go to that video right away
that’s outstanding
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well that was unbelievable quite
quite wow
it’s a beautiful sight really especially
this time of year
yeah it’s amazing i’ve been to normandy
so i mean uh yeah several times
and uh actually some of the bunkers are
actually covered with sand by now or
filled with sand and uh from the wind
blowing
and uh to be on the cliffs not to even
point to hawk but like uh obviously that
was a tremendous
uh operation by the rangers but uh
just just to be there and to realize how
many how many what was the total of
kill the first date ninety thousand
uh currently we’ve identified two
thousand five hundred and two
american fatalities just for june 6
and 113
oh okay wow that was uh
well yeah i guess the whole thing with
the airborne operations and things like
that
uh probably it went up but uh it was
really precious i think it stepped back
yeah john yes can you could you step
back
about a foot there you go
that’s good no it’s a brightness yeah
that’s good so uh
what made you get what made you get
involved with this
well i i have worked in museum work for
about 23 years now
uh and also have taught world war ii
history
on the college level and so when an
opening
for education director started here i uh
was immediately interested
and um haven’t regretted it that’s
one of my things was uh
the world war ii generation won’t be
with us much longer and this is my
opportunity to
talk to them learn from them record
their stories uh and again it’s
uh i’ve never regretted the time i’ve
spent with a world war ii veteran
we’re going to go to some photos now
okay excellent
okay so haven’t explained it all right
here we go
yeah that piece is called uh valor
fidelity sacrifice
and as you can tell it shows a man
crossing the beach dragging a wounded
comrade
uh you can’t see in this picture because
because of the angle but uh
a lot of people will notice on the hand
of the upper figure is a wedding ring
and the sculptor who was a man named jim
brothers from kansas
very deliberately put that little detail
in as a reminder that
uh these men on the beaches or jumping
out of the airplanes
had a lot at stake they had their own
commitments at home and
and a future they wanted to return to
and many of them never got the chance
yes yeah yeah yeah that goes never
never never saw that or heard of that
particular aspect in ever
excellent point yeah and uh
well we’re gonna uh there you go his
next one uh this is obviously in the
fall of the year when the site is
beautiful as well
uh homage uh it’s our tribute to the
bedford boys those 20 men from bedford
who gave their lives on b day 19 of them
from one company
um and uh this of course shows a soldier
paying his own tribute to a fallen
comrade the
battle cross is there in front of the
rifle stuck into the ground with a
helmet on top
so it’s our tribute and a soldier paying
tribute as well
there you go oh here we go next picture
yeah this is at the beach scene and you
saw in the video a minute ago
uh during the day there are water
effects that uh
you know simulate bullets hitting the
hitting the water uh these two men have
made it to the beach
uh and are trying to cross it and uh you
notice
on the helmets of uh the the back figure
there
he’s a medic and i always give a great
deal of
of uh honor to the medics of
any battle but especially d-day uh
because they
were just overwhelmed by the wounded and
uh
were were there um you know
in a situation where they had to
actually evacuate the wounded
toward the guns not back because behind
them of course was the english channel
yeah that was uh wow you’re right that’s
uh
yeah they did uh medic joe smith of
vietnam was a
always active and what a tremendous guy
in the heart
were they uh armed in world war ii
uh they uh they could carry a sidearm
and many of them did
right yeah okay not typically anything
more than that
i’m sure a few cheated and yeah one but
uh
for the most part they were
non-combatants and supposed to be
disarmed
correct yes okay next next photo
uh this is the back of a uh sculpture
that
is an exact replica of a world war one
memorial in france treville france
um and if we could rotate it you would
see uh that
her face has been torn away by a
a shell the original in france was hit
by
artillery a few days after d-day and the
people of the village decided just to
stand
the original back up in that state
as a tribute not just to world war one
but to world war
ii as well and uh to the fragility of
peace
and uh it is still there in treville our
copy is here in bedford
you might be very just laid off
interesting
okay yeah can you turn that light down
john try it
yeah let’s see a little bit bright we
can’t we don’t see you
want to see that face in the in the
behind the
action all right better
yeah ah there we go get into the uh
that’s perfect there you go excellent
next photo please
uh this is uh called the final tribute
it’s a sculptor by
uh matt kirby uh and once again the
fallen soldier battle cross
where uh men in the second world war
would be buried by their their buddies
uh after the battle
uh in shallow grave and marked with
their helmet the rifle and their dog
tags
that’s a very poignant reminder
of course of the loss of any comrade
um and uh the the you know modern
military
doesn’t usually have to bury a man
in that fashion anymore but you still
see that symbolism carried through
military
funerals today quite interesting to see
the bugle there yes that was during one
of our ceremonies
i believe yeah it’s either the virginia
tech corps of cadets or the vmi corps of
cadets
uh down there in the plaza below and uh
on the right side yeah right i see him
down there
yeah they came here uh to uh you know
the freshman classes
to uh you know show them what had
happened on d-day
that’s great really wow okay here we go
rangers
these are this represents the rangers
climbing quantum hawk
uh the sculptor against jim brothers
actually had a bigger vision want to
think of this symbolically as the world
war ii generation climbing its way to
victory but
uh it’s inspired by the rangers who of
course had the impossible job
of landing on the beach below the cliffs
crossing the beach
and then scaling that hundred foot cliff
um
under enemy fire and uh many people when
that job was given to the
second of the fifth rangers thought it
was an impossible one
some give me a bloodbath and yet within
seven minutes of landing on the beach
there were americans at the top
of that cliff they took care of the
german guns they found uh they’ve been
moved back
away from the uh the gun emplacements
but they took care of them
and then held those cliffs for two days
before they were reinforced
uh it’s another one of the amazing
stories indeed yeah absolutely right
yeah that is that’s crazy well what
heroic
times unbelievable all right next
photograph here you go
last one last photo yeah this is our
necrology
project uh which records the names on
these plaques
of every allied soldier sailor era and
coast guardsmen
who died on d-day itself
well tell us about the necrology project
that the the necrology project actually
predates the opening of the memorial
it’s been going on now for
21 22 years uh and uh the goal was
uh that we would find the names of every
man who died on d-day
uh and and preserve them because at that
point
no one could even tell you how many men
died on d-day
uh and you know anyone who was related
to one of them would say
uncle joe or grandad died on d-day but
there was a comprehensive list
and so researchers began in about the
year 2000
to go through military records cemetery
rosters headstone applications
obituaries everything every source they
could find
um and uh uncovered thousands of names
but also uncovered a lot of frustration
because
as as i often explained to people the
goal of the military in 1944 was to win
the war
it wasn’t to keep absolutely perfect
records that keep historians happy in
the future
exactly a man
well let’s say a body washes ashore the
week after d-day did he die on d-day did
he die on
december 7th 8th no one could know and
or a paratrooper is found
after the battle but no way of
establishing a firm
death date and so sometimes it’s guess
work sometimes it’s simply the day
the remains were recovered um and
sometimes there are contradictions and
so uh we have spent
uh say over 20 years now
trying to sort through all that and uh
still
finding names uh we’re not finished yet
and we know
that we will never have them all because
again there’s there’s a lot of
uncertainty
uh but so we are going to do our best
and continue going
coming through these records and in fact
uh just this year
on memorial day uh we officially added
two names this is one of them it’s a uh
navy ensign by the name of frederick
nye moses one by the middle his middle
name nai nye
and nye moses uh from california
was in command of a landing craft tank
lct
540 uh that came
into omaha beach in the early hours at
that time it was the largest
uh craft that had gotten near the beach
everything else were the small higgins
boats
uh and that made it a perfect target and
so
the germans opened up on lct 540.
night moses was hit his leg was pretty
much severed by an artillery shell
but even as he was dying he was giving
orders to his men to
continue on to the beach and 540 did it
the the skipper didn’t live to see it
happen but uh
his crew carried out their mission
unloaded artillery
uh pieces that were needed and um
uh it’s yes most most of the crews
survived
but the captain or the the ensign in
command
uh nay moses uh was killed
and in the confusion he was his death
date was just listed improperly we
uncovered some oral histories
and uh his own silver star citation
which says clearly he died on d-day
uh and with that evidence now we’ve
added his name to the wall
that’s great how do you uh yeah how do
you
get this information so later you do
some dna things then or what
yes in fact we had a visitor just last
week
uh the nephew of a pilot who was killed
on d-day
and that pilot uh william mcgowan has
only recently been identified
archaeological remains were found and
dna tests done on the family
and uh captain lieutenant mcgowan will
be
buried uh in normandy american cemetery
probably next summer um it’s been all
been delayed by covet of course
but he may well be the last d-day
fatality to be buried in that cemetery
yeah i’ve been there it’s quite a void
unbelievable scene
that is a fantastic place i’ve been
there a few times actually
to uh see the bunkers and some of them
are even covered with sand somewhere
down the coast line at
the every time it’s blown in and filled
them up or
they were filled whatever and uh what
happened to all the artillery pieces
that were there
so even though some are still there the
german one the german ones
uh well they were captured um the ones
that weren’t destroyed and of course
they wanted to take the
fights many of them were you know uh the
the melted by
thermite grenades but a lot of them did
survive and became war trophies
they’re still all through france um i
there may be some in the united
states i’ve never run across some i’ve
seen world war one german guns here
uh but uh they’re there again a great
reminder of the victory that was won
here we go this is our other
addition to the necrology wall this is
captain clarence
tolle t-o-l-l-e uh and he was
in uh the 507th parachute infantry
regiment 82nd airborne jumped on d-day
survived the jump uh found himself
separated from most of his units so he
did what he was trained to do he cobbled
together as many other paratroopers as
he could find
and went about trying to achieve achieve
their objective
and about noon on d-day he was leading
this sort of uh you know cobbled
together squad of men
against a german stronghold he was hit
by a machine gun fire
and and killed um and once again the the
records are just confused his death date
was listed improperly but we found
oral histories uh that uh you know
clearly point to his death on d-day
um and so he has been not only added to
our memorial wall but his death date has
been changed
uh by the normandy american cemetery as
well
you know d-day day plus one to me
doesn’t matter they were all heroes and
died in the scene it does and and we’re
very careful to point that out
uh the men who died on june 6th they’re
any more heroic
than the ones that died on june 7th or
8th but uh
practical matter we only had so much
wall we couldn’t make it 10 miles long
that’s right yeah yeah we we are very
careful to point out the
you know the dying didn’t stop on june
6. there are many many others to come
okay how far does this necrology project
go
i mean we will keep going uh you know
until
uh you know like i it’s easy to say
until we’ve
looked at every record but it’s hard to
say how many records there are but we
we keep digging people send us names uh
all the time and we research them
sometimes we realize
uh this person you know didn’t die on
d-day
uh you know maybe it’s later in the
month uh but other times let’s say we’ve
been able to uh to definitely identify
another casualty
and add him to the wall we’re gonna go
do the video working on several names
now so there may be more
yeah in the future okay we’re going to
run to a video now
one second john okay okay
yeah this is about a uh i did a
reenactment jump
about four or five years ago and uh one
of the guys they had international jump
and uh one of the guys from sweden i
believe was uh
sort of like he’s supposed to step out
the door of the aircraft the c-47
and he sort of like went way back and
tried to
push his self out with the both hands
slipped
hit his butt hit his head
bent the other way hit his ribs and
here’s what happened next
okay
hi this is ronnie author of fallout
never forgotten
vietnam memorials in the usa i don’t
know if you’ve ever heard of
seen or taken part in a bad exit from an
airplane or a bad landing
in a parachute jump but have i got one
for you
i was in normandy france on d-day in
2015
for a re-enactment shop the city was
filled with people
festivals carnivals many visitors
people from england bringing jeeps in
and world war ii apparatus
and vehicles and weapons on the first
airborne
and the 82nd airborne took part in the
jumps and the people in normandy just
love
the paratroopers then and now
about the parachute jump the bad exit a
bad landing
the morning of the jump we did a brief
exit from a mock-up airplane
landings rollings falling
anything we had to do relearning about
our
emergency landings high tension wires
rooftops trees water things like that
so from there we drove about 50 miles up
to the coast
and boarded up 347s there was two planes
two sticks at each point that’s about
ten jumpers on each side of the plane
as the first stick went out another
gentleman from sweden
jumped a little far back hit his butt on
the floor
plane then fell one way hit his
head and then back this way and hit his
ribs
we didn’t know all that until later
rooftops trees backyards
high tension wires swimming pools
thinking of all the
early landings i had to take ready get
ready for
so as i landed thankfully in the
backyard
the trees were cut low about four feet
high with just some little saplings
raising up over them i looked up and i
saw another jumper
about 40 yards away
i yelled from hey buddy we made it
hallelujah
and i started to take off my shoe as i
did and looked up again
he hadn’t moved i ran over and the man
was unconscious
yeah he was just fine he was up he was
unconscious
i started the medic medic but no one
came
fortunately we had the international
calling plan and i called my son matthew
and he got in touch with the jump master
he called the medics and the etms came
the medics came
the police came the firemen came it was
amazing
the only problem i had we had is that we
needed a doctor who spoke
both swedish and french fortunately
the man did recover he had a concussion
and some broken ribs but he’s fine now
back in sweden and thanks again for
supporting my book
fallen never forgotten vietnam memorials
in the usa a tribute to the men who
never came home
from vietnam
okay here’s a little jump out huh great
story
really it was the craziest thing i i
i don’t know there’s not too many things
in real life war
that i experienced that were crazier
than that and uh
well maybe a few obvious but but yeah i
mean
to watch him go out of the plane and
then realize it’s the same guy
who misjumped and uh
well amazing i’m so happy that he was
safe you know what i mean
and if we had a language barrier going
on and we had
who where were we you know nobody knew
where you were you’re in some backyard
somewhere but uh things came out pretty
good and i’m glad the guy
uh made it home and we recovered we
found that later on through that
so we’re gonna go to the q a now
questions and answers shoot let’s go to
the first
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okay kilo 19
melbourne sunk another ship earlier in
their career for money
sunk another ship earlier in the career
from running into it yes
that’s interesting the melbourne was a
tough ship
should have been my goodness gracious
okay thank you for telling us that kilo
next question hey pick it in
in maryland thank you thank you andrew
sibera
appreciate that thanks for watching
mike brickell d referred to the 502nd
infantry 101st airborne division
screaming eagles all the way
thank you mike thanks for stopping in
my mother was 19 when he landed on omar
beach in the third wave
his unit the 119th teamed up with patton
yeah bill appreciate that and your and
your dad
nick kilo 19 his grandpa was in the
401st during world war ii as a signalman
unfortunately he passed away before i
got older and never really got to talk
about
his experiences it’s interesting kilo
because a lot of guys from world war ii
don’t talk didn’t talk about their
experiences so
even though some of them still may be
here
thank you for that kilo next really see
god bless those heroes who sacrificed
their lives for freedom
all right d-day veterans amen to that
thank you kilo
excellent video i appreciate that kilo
that’s real life stuff man
yeah i guess that’s the best stuff right
you never know what’s going to happen
next one the level on that detail of
these detail of these statues is amazing
the sculptor uh the sculptor did
extensive research into equipment
um the the the weapons the clothing
uh even down to uh if you pay attention
to the uh the rangers
that we showed uh the eyelets of their
boots uh that you know a uh a ranger
would have used to climb rope not the
ones with the hooks
because that would get caught on the
rope so uh yeah he really did an amazing
job
uh jim brothers is no longer with us but
uh his his legacy lives on here with his
sculpture
you meant to that thank you kilo next
how what do you mean acreage how big is
the memorial site
uh it’s over 50 acres uh there’s some
wooded wooded land
uh that’s not developed so the uh the
actual you know memorial site that you
would tour if you came is a little bit
smaller than that uh but
it is much larger than a lot of people
realize they see the
the arch uh that you’ve seen in the
pictures uh the overlord arch
uh they see that from the road and
assume yeah you know that’s that’s nice
there’s an arch but when they get up
here they see
uh you know the full extent of of it
there’s a lot of symbolism
um a lot of plaques uh you know
tributes to individuals into units and
uh so say you can really spend a lot of
time here
is it a walkable the whole thing oh it
is
it is uh we we have you know the option
for wheelchairs or car tours
uh okay they like the yeah okay they
have those trains
look the little trains little trams that
drive around with people on them or uh
yeah golf carts oh golf clubs okay cool
all right yeah
is there any mission uh there’s a
mission charge it uh varies
from you know time to time and uh you
know discounts for veterans and for
students and such so uh i would say just
check out our webpage d-day.org
to uh to to find out about the emission
uh we are not far from poplar forest
which is a great site thomas jefferson’s
second home
uh besides monticello and we have joint
ticketing with poplar forest as well
so a lot of people will come to bedford
and you know spend half the day here
half the day there
and learn a lot of history
that’s d-day.org d-day.org
absolutely let me ask you a question
after d-day a lot of those paratroopers
had those little clickers you know
remember those
i do sounds like they’re behind you
uh i think those are frogs actually in
our pond
yeah but the flickers are another great
story of d-day that just reminded me of
that yeah with the other
like kind of what they were crickets or
what yeah they caught them crickets
and uh they were uh only
you know used for a short while and many
of the men didn’t save them so they’re
kind of rare
uh but there are a lot of replicas you
probably saw in gift shop shops in
normandy
you know something wait one second i
gotta get one off my shelf
okay
it is click once
yeah these are crazy they got them at a
101st airborne division uh
bastion reunion sure
and uh they feature prominently in the
movie the longest day
which i always write yeah you’re right
there you go what were they used for
and these were the signal
what would what was they doing from the
loading of the m1 when click click
click click at first well what was the
reason for these
well the idea was uh in the dark because
they’re jumping
not long after midnight right you hear
someone over there in the bushes is the
friend or foe
click once and if he answers with two
clicks then you know he is a fellow
paratrooper
right yeah in the movie the longest day
the
the two clicks is a german you know
cocking his rifle
um but generally they worked
you know as much as they could yeah sure
you needed something to tell who was who
sure absolutely um and they knew they
were gonna be scattered
um so you know you’re gonna have to
spend the first hour in france forming
up your units you know getting enough
men together to
to that’s amazing it’s behind there it
was
that sound it just that was not supposed
to be in the
show but it got worked its way in the
show absolutely
guest stars very good what do we got
matt
all right yeah well i think that’s going
to wrap it up anymore any more comments
you could
tell our audience about the uh anything
you missed or that you wanted to
add to uh uh this sunday at 10 o’clock
we will be
marking the 77th anniversary of d-day
with suitable ceremony it won’t be as
big
as some of the ones we’ve done in the
past of course because of covid
but we can’t ignore june 6th and so
if you happen to be in or near virginia
come on by bedford
uh sunday morning and we will mark the
anniversary and pay tribute to those who
who are
fallen but not forgotten that’s great i
appreciate that well thank you so much
for your information your knowledge and
your presence here and uh
hopefully we’ll talk to you soon about
some things any information you can pass
on to us
just send send it to our website you
know fallingneverforgotten.com
it and absolutely thank you very much
and
god bless you and welcome home everybody
out there
amen thank you for being on the show
appreciate it and good evening
