7/24/2023 0 Comments D day remembrance 2014While in France, he stayed at a horse ranch. I can go across that no problem.' Stepped in it and was up to my chest in mud."Īfter spending almost another 12 hours in his dirty, dried uniform, he and the other crew were released. "One looked like it had 5 or 6 inches of water in it. "I was coming back to turn my chute in, and there were some little canals," he said. Moreton had a similar experience after landing in the drop zone. Besides telling other men that their customary grasp was inadequate and consequently punching them in the gut, Pee Wee also described the drop zone was difficult to deal with because of the mud in the canals that were flooded back in 1944. Moreton said he was the "orneriest old man I met in my life." Apparently, a good, firm handshake was a must with Pee Wee. Moreton was deployed with that unit in 2007. When they were speaking together, the alleged Martin said he was an airborne soldier with the 1st of the 508th. "I'm pretty sure I met the guy the day prior," he said of Pee Wee Martin. "It was very humbling," he said of the spectators and the part he played in the reenactment.Īlthough he was not a major player in the jump, he believes he met the man who made national headlines with his 70-year jump anniversary. This was special to him, as it allowed him to earn a set of Dutch jump wings - his second foreign pair, he said, with the other being Irish. There, he jumped with a Dutch unit, off a Dutch C130, using Dutch parachutes. He attended the anniversary event with the 116th ASOS out of Tacoma, Washington. Fred Moreton, a chief joint terminal attack control instructor with the 146th Air Support Operations Squadron at Will Rogers Air National Guard Base in Oklahoma City. The granddaughter of a paratrooper, she is the first American female jumper at the reenactments, according to an article on War History Online.Īlso at the reenactment was Tech. Family members filled in where their ancestors could not, such as Allison Porcella. Veterans of both the Allied and Axis powers sat together in the crowd, former enemies united in remembrance of the losses on both sides.Īnother veteran, Jim "Pee Wee" Martin, was an original paratrooper at Normandy who jumped on the anniversary at 93-years old, according to CNN online. Among the crowd were veterans, descendants, and other spectators commemorating this historic moment. They were dropped to secure flanks and vital bridges, according to an interactive map on BBC's website.įast forward 70 years to 2014, and tens of thousands of people were gathered in a field in France watching almost 900 jumpers recreate those airdrops. ![]() ![]() A few hours before these beach landings, thousands of paratroopers landed behind the lines to assist in the takeover as a part of Operation Overlord. Almost 156,000 men stormed five different beaches, and thousands of men died on those shores and in the water. Operation Neptune was the codename for the invasion of Normandy's beaches. Early in the morning on June 6, 1944, an unfathomable scene of battle and death commenced on the beaches of Normandy, France. WILL ROGERS AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Okla.
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