June 6, 1944

[lucydad]

Marking the day.  Dad was there as a TSGT with the 76th General Field Hospital.  They took casualties offshore for the first two days.
Then they encamped on the beach for the next several weeks.  The carnage was so bad they ran out of room on the ship, and put wounded men and bodies on tenders attached to the ship.  A constant back to England stream was started for survivors.  Triage was their mission.  To this day, I wonder what dad felt, what it was like.  He was one of the guys, along with nurses making the first decisions on casualties as they came aboard. 

[cruzziguzzi]

Marking the day.  Dad was there as a TSGT with the 76th General Field Hospital.  They took casualties offshore for the first two days.
Then they encamped on the beach for the next several weeks.  The carnage was so bad they ran out of room on the ship, and put wounded men and bodies on tenders attached to the ship.  A constant back to England stream was started for survivors.  Triage was their mission.  To this day, I wonder what dad felt, what it was like.  He was one of the guys, along with nurses making the first decisions on casualties as they came aboard.

I always thought folks in those positions would experience an epic spiritual grinding. Without faith and/or patriotism to assuage the effects of the relentless flow of those exhibits of one man's actions on another man I should think an otherwise sound individual would crack.

Noting relatively recent attacks on both faith and patriotism, I shouldn't wonder, called upon, are we even capable of matching their feats on the same level? Such is the effect of effects when learning and knowing are supplanted by feeling. Pity, that.

Todd.

[lucydad]

Todd,

I very much appreciate your thoughts and comment.  He did not much talk about the war, and never about Normandy.  I suspect the first few days, weeks and months were spectacularly brutal.  The experiences few had known, exceptions perhaps those who served in WW I.  Dad saved several lives using his emergency medical knowledge, this being in small town Durango, CO during the fifties and sixties. One vivid one:  lady across street who tried to suicide with alcohol and pills.  He brought her back from the brink. 

A week ago I was going thru some old files of mine.  I found a German silver eagle breast patch, on black, with genuine silver wire.  Perhaps an SS member, as I knew the 76th was over run during the Battle of the Bulge by Pieper, etal, but bugged out.  The eagle reminded me, oh yes, this really happened.  I also have a business card from a whorehouse in Liege.  They were but human.  The spiritual cost was certainly enormous.  I don't think he ever was "normal".  My mother never got that.  We will never fully understand.

[mtiberio]

My Dad was a TSGT, head of a heavy weapons platoon, First (Yankee) Division. 2nd wave at Omaha Beach I believe. Said there were so many bodies, they bulldozed them so subsequent waves wouldn't be discouraged. France knighted him (Legion of Honor) a few years ago, before he passed. Lived to be almost 93, and worked until just a few months before he died. I'm heading to Paris for a week next week. I hope to make it to Normandy. Oh yea, and Dad said after watching "Saving Private Ryan", you know that pill box they hid behind... We didn't have any pillboxes to hide behind.

[cruzziguzzi]

Todd,

I very much appreciate your thoughts and comment.  He did not much talk about the war, and never about Normandy.  I suspect the first few days, weeks and months were spectacularly brutal.  The experiences few had known, exceptions perhaps those who served in WW I.  Dad saved several lives using his emergency medical knowledge, this being in small town Durango, CO during the fifties and sixties. One vivid one:  lady across street who tried to suicide with alcohol and pills.  He brought her back from the brink. 

A week ago I was going thru some old files of mine.  I found a German silver eagle breast patch, on black, with genuine silver wire.  Perhaps an SS member, as I knew the 76th was over run during the Battle of the Bulge by Pieper, etal, but bugged out.  The eagle reminded me, oh yes, this really happened.  I also have a business card from a whorehouse in Liege.  They were but human.  The spiritual cost was certainly enormous.  I don't think he ever was "normal".  My mother never got that.  We will never fully understand.

Yup, get a fella to open up about Tinian, Tarawa, Anzio and the like. Really puts people hopping on the PTSD bandwagon for child birth, fender benders, getting fired, etc... into perspective. I though places and circumstances like Beirut and Somalia were the pooh but talk to a Black Devil, Devil Dog or Dogface and actualities shift mightily.

Todd.

[Kent in Upstate NY]

Trauma is trauma.