Dutch respect for our fallen

[Murray Brook]

What a beautiful piece of music played by a beautiful young lady. Thank you ever so much for posting. We must never forget The Greatest Generation. RIP to each and every one of these brave young men that died far from home.

 

[SEM]

WE really need to bring America back.....

 

[nmkid]

A couple of days ago I had the honor of saluting and shaking the hand of a WW ll veteran. All I could say was thank you because something was getting stuck in my throat. That indeed was probably the greatest generation of our country.

 

[cmysix]

any of the Allied grave yards in Europe are well taken care of by the local populations, not like here where you got some ahole trying to stop people from putting wreathes on the graves each year.

 

[Willie]

GREAT TIMING There was a soldier that was killed in Market Garden but his body was never found. After many years, his remains were located and with DNA he was confirmed as US Army Sgt Garland Collier of Coleman, TX.

Today he was buried alongside his parents in Coleman, TX after nearly 80 years. RIP Sgt Collier, you are home.

 

[flatlander]

When I was in the 8th grade, our civics teacher was the father of a classmate, and had served as a tail gunner in B-17s. His best friend & he had enlisted on the same day, and his friend went on to become a combat engineer in the Army. Our teacher spent the night of his 19th birthday freezing his butt off in a very poorly heated barracks on a Russian airfield, where his bombing group had landed after taking off from England and attacking targets in Germany. There, pre-placed fuel, ordnance, and mechanics waited to service their B-17s in preparation for the mission the following day which would take them back over targets in Germany on their way back to their home base in England. The Germans had sent long range fighters - probably Me-110s - to shadow the B-17s as they flew into Russia, so they could send in bombers that night to attack the airfield where the Americans had landed. What a memorable B-D that must've been - freezing while being attacked by the Luftwaffe in Russia.

His buddy - the combat engineer, was the uncle of another classmate. He told us about getting hit in the leg by German machinegun fire while his squad was paddling a boat across the Rhine River into Germany. When I asked him about whether he was afraid of getting hit again before they made it across, he chuckled and said, "No, I was afraid of drowning - I never learned to swim!" His father had served in the Army during WW I, and they had both seen combat in some of the same regions of France.

Our civics teacher died of cancer about 20yrs ago, the the combat engineer just passed a week ago Saturday. I'll never forget what an honor it was to know them both - the Dutch girl's beautiful trumpet solo surely did have an effect on me. Thanks so much for posting it.

 

[Brians356]

I had cousins that fought in the Dutch underground. My grand father died of starvation 4 days before the liberation of Rotterdam. I also had an uncle that was a great violinist, he was a 'turn coat', he went to Berlin to play for Hitler. The family didn't hold that against him, everyone was doing the best they could to survive. In the late 1950s many Dutch men wore a small pin in their lapel showing they contributed to the war effort. The Dutch people, like many others, suffered because of a mad man. It's a very emotional experience to see those huge cemeteries of fighting men. Keep an open mind and an open heart.

I stayed with some young Dutch friends in Nijmegen (central to Operation Market Garden) in 1986. At one of their mothers' home, she produced a box of cookies, which she carried around the room allowing each of us to select one small cookie, then she retired back to the pantry to put them away. Afterward my friends felt compelled to explain that such frugality, while not needed in Holland today, was innate and born of the hardships suffered under various occupations. Americans especially tend to be taken aback and feel awkward in the moment.
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[Kittitas George]

I stayed with some young Dutch friends in Nijmegen (central to Operation Market Garden) in 1986. At one of their mothers' home, she produced a box of cookies, which she carried around the room allowing each of us to select one small cookie, then she retired back to the pantry to put them away. Afterward my friends felt compelled to explain that such frugality, while not needed in Holland today, was innate and born of the hardships suffered under various occupations. Americans especially tend to be taken aback and feel awkward in the moment.
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My father's family was very poor, when he was very young his mother would send him to the butcher with 10 cents to buy a horse heart. They had a few chickens, he would poke a hole in the shell and suck the raw egg out, of course he was punished. As a young teen he got a job traveling around Europe with a 'sharp shooter' that shot off a horse running on a tread mill. He served a short time in the Dutch army then came to America working in the galley of a ship. The cargo was Russian Jews, my father "jumped ship" in New York. I don't know the year he came to the U.S. but maybe 1909 or 1910. There are no records of him entering the country. He was a very generous person, if I was cheap or stingy he would be greatly disappointed. He had a very interesting and full life, I wish I knew more about it. I was to young to know the questions to ask.

 

[Ol Thumper]

That made my eyes water, those men are what made the country what it is and that’s pretty refreshing knowing they still show respect for our fallen soldiers,,, Gives me hope the whole world hasn’t gone to crap yet.