The Greatest Generation

About 16 retired and veteran military personnel are being sponsored by Cunard and “The Greatest Generation” foundation to be at the ceremonies of the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6th. These veterans had a public seminar everyday at 10 am, which Lilia and I attended. They had fascinating ‘war stories’ to tell and there were many tears in the audience at each seminar. They are from all the services, including the Coast Guard. They were from Pearl Harbor all the way to the parachutists after D-Day. All in their 90s, of course. One was 99. They were in different stages of health. We were so lucky to have been on this voyage and we got to meet many of them during the day and evening. I remember one of the gentlemen I chatted with was on an LST going to Normandy. He went to the beach on an LCVP. You know, like the boats with the ramp that actually let them off near the beach. We talked about what it was like being on an LST and how it rocked and rolled while at sea. He said that since he was assigned to the LCVP he had to only stand watches and not swab the deck. Another sad story was from another crew of an LCVP. His job was to drop the ramp when they approached the beach. He heard the bullets hitting the ramp and when the coxswain said drop the ramp, he didn’t hear him. Then the command “drop the ramp” was yelled again, he knew those bullets would come into the boat and kill people, so he didn’t. Well, the third time the command was given, it included a few expletives and he dropped the ramp. Immediately three men were hit and as the rest attempted to go down the ramp, most were gunned down. Of all the men who went down the ramp, only three made it. The coxswain needed to raise the ramp to depart the beach, but there were bodies on the ramp, so this man had to drag them back into the boat. Such sad stories.  Asked about videos of each seminar, but they were not available.