D-Day, 66 Years Later ... Lest we forget.

A wreath is laid on the tomb of US soldier Edward M. Withers, from Wisconsin, who died on July 12, 1944, at the Colleville US cemetary, western France, Sunday June 6, 2010, on the 66th anniversary of the D-Day. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

The message delivered from General Eisenhower just before the Invasion began

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.  But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!  Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

So that we do not forget the great debt we owe the men and women of the U.S., Britain, France, Canada, Russia and all the rest of the world that were fighting the Nazi's on this day 66 years ago...  Here are some links to sites about the Normandy Invasion

Encyclopedia Brittanica Interactive History

Wikipedia D-Day Site

Let us never forget.

Man's best friend...

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.  He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.  When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?''  This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.  'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.'  The man gestured, and the gate began to open.  'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.  'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'


The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.  As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.  'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'  'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.' 'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog. 'There should be a bowl by the pump.'  They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.  The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.  'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.  'This is Heaven,' he answered. 'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.' 'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell.'  'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?' 'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'

Author unknown but I've been told that this story was presented in an episode of Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone".

Goodbye iWeb, Hello WordPress!

Let me start by saying... Arggggghhhh.

I used to have a blog on my Apple website.  Then I realized that it wasn't updating.  In fact, I had made several updates over the last year and none of them were posted.  They exist in iWeb, but they don't seem to come out on the real web.

Needless to say, my Apple Hosted, iWeb driven blog is dead, long live my WordPress blog!

Now, to figure out how to get my old entries over to here...

Ok, now I'm in trouble...   Teacher caught me.  I'm in class and I managed to log into wordpress, make a blog, start working on it and he finally catches me.  I do love this iPad!!