June 2011 D-Day Stars and Stripes Special Edition

2011

The Oklahoma D-Day Special Edition, Volume 3

FREE

WELCOME TO D-DAY 2011 Welcome to the 2011 edition of The Annual Oklahoma D-Day Stars and Stripes Special Edition Newspaper. If this is your first visit to the D-Day Adventure Park field take a few moments to get oriented If you‘ve just picked up your registration you‘re now standing before the gateway to the Camp grounds.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 5…………………………Missions/ Points Page 6……………………………….Field Map Page 7…………………………...…Camp Map

To the north is the vendors area, D-Day Café Page 8…………………………….Vendor Map and Store and to the south, through the arch, Page 9………………………..Schedule, part 1 is the RV and Rec areas and camp grounds.

Page 9…………………………………….Trivia As you flip through this paper you‘ll find dePage 10………………………Schedule, part 2 tailed maps of both those areas, as well as one of the playing field, plus a breakdown of Page 17…………………….Wild Bill Donovan all the objectives and points. There‘s even a Page 21………………………..Camp Crowder complete day by day schedule of events so Page 22………………………………….SPAM you can track what‘s happening over the course of the entire week.

Page 24……..…….Les Fleurs de la Memoire By the time you get ready to head home both Dewayne and his entire staff hope you‘ll have made lots of new friends, as well as had the time of your life.

Finally, be sure to always keep your mask on, play fair, with honor and respect and listen to the judges who help keep this a safe event. Stay hydrated and don‘t hesitate to call for help if you see someone in need of assistance.

Event History Oklahoma D-Day 2011 is dedicated to preserving the memory of Enos Armstrong and all those who fought, on both sides, during WW II. Enos served with the 238th Combat Engineers and landed in Normandy France on June 6, 1944, D-Day. After the war he shared stories about the war with his grandson. These stories later inspired Dewayne Convirs, the originator of D-Day to use the event to help preserve the memory of his grandfather, as well as the sacrifices made by those involved in WWII.

D-Day 2011, dedicated to the memory of Enos Armstrong

LOCATED IN BOOTH # 35

2011 D-Day Scoring Details

2011 FIELD MAP

GOLDEN OLDIES CONTEST MONDAY – WED. JUNE 6TH, 7TH 8TH

WIN A DOZEN D-DAY DOLLARS EACH NIGHT A SONG WILL BE PLAYED OVER THE D-DAY RADIO, AFTER WHICH THE FIRST PERSON WHO FINDS COOKIE OF THE 899 TH TANK DESTROYER BATTALION (BLACK CATS) OR KELLY WITH THE 101 ST AIRBORNE, 502 ND P.I.R. AND NAMES THE SONG AND THE ARTIST WILL RECEIVE A COUPON WORTH $12 REDEEMABLE AT THE D-DAY CAFÉ OR THE D-DAY GENERAL STORE.

Campground

Trivia Heron is the brand name for Morphine once marketed by ‗Bayer.‘

In ancient times Chinese, Roman and German societies once used urine as mouthwash.

Google is the common name for a number with a million zeros.

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it can never wears out and can be recycled an infinite number of times.

Gold is the only metal which doesn‘t rust, even if it‘s buried in the ground for thousands of years.

Your tongue is the only muscle in your body which is only attached at one end.

If you stop getting thirsty you need to drink more water. When your body is dehydrated its thirst mechanism shuts down.

Each year 2,000,000 smokers either quit smoking or die of lung related diseases.

Zero is the only number which can‘t be represented by a Roman Numeral.

Kites were used during the Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

Cont’d.

MOVIE REVIEW

Pathfinders In The Company of Strangers Genre Action/Adventure Synopsis: Untold and lost history. The true story of the American Pathfinders, the volunteer paratroopers whose deadly mission was to land 30 minutes before the Normandy airborne invasion was to begin, locate and mark strategic "drop zones" and set up the top-secret radio homing beacons.

Film focuses on how these troops overcame numerous obstacles both before their jump, as well as after their jump when they found themselves in the middle of German held France with only a few precious minutes to locate their positions and complete their vital mission.

This “elite group “ is comprised of a mix of renegades from a number of different units who are led by two commanding officers. They are strangers to one another with no time to prepare. Odds of them successfully completing their mission are extremely high.

Copyright: Portland Independent Films Website: http://www.pathfindersfilm.com

Boonslick Lodge - 1602 Industrial Drive, Neosho, MO 64850 417/455-0888 The Place Jake & Martha McNiece stay

Book Review

Rare History You might enjoy this from Col D. G. Swinford, USMC, Ret and history buff. You would really have to dig deep to get this kind of ringside seat to history: 1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940); highest ranking American killed was Lt Gen Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced 'sink us'), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named 'Amerika.' All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%.

5. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese Ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.

Women Heroes of World War II Author: Kathryn J. Atwood Publishers: Chicago Review Press Chicago: During World War II, women were compelled to serve their countries and in Europe, much of the time this meant risking death by joining the underground. Resistance efforts working with Allied government agencies as spies and couriers or hiding downed pilots and Jewish families and transferring them to safety. These women‘s achievements and more are recounted in ‗Women Heroes of World War II.‘ The book contains brief but riveting stories of 26 women, from eight countries (Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain and the United States) which are told through the use of dialogue, direct quotes and documentary excerpts lending authenticity to the accomplishments of daring, confident women like Nancy Wake, who rode nearly 300 miles on her bicycle in 72 hours to secure a new radio and transmission codes to aid the French Resistance and Martha Gellhorn, a U.S. war correspondent and the first woman journalist to report on D-Day.

7. When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but they decided it wasn't worth the effort.

9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

10. Among the first 'Germans' captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.

By ANDREW RO BERT S

William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, the head of the wartime Off ice of Strategic Services, has long been a controversial f igure. If a man can be judged by the quality of his enemies, Donovan—who was cordially disliked or distrusted by Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall and especially by J. Edgar Hoover—was a giant of his era. That President Franklin Roosevelt eventually came to like and admire Donovan, a Republican enemy of the New Deal, says much for both men. As Douglas Waller makes clear in his f ast-moving and well-written biography, "Wild Bill Donovan," Roosevelt's approval was the foundation of Donovan's place at the center of American intelligence operations f rom July 1941 to September 1945.

Yet he was always an invigorating, thrusting, positive f orce. He insisted on taking part in the Salerno, Anzio and Normandy landings, hitting the beaches virtually in the second wave each time. At one point at Salerno, this 200-pound, 5-foot-9-inch, 60-year-old man with thickening heart muscles actually got into a f iref ight with an Italian patrol. It lef t him "happy as a clam."

Mr. Waller, a former Newsweek and Time correspondent, makes a powerf ul case that Donovan was a great American. He does not, however, even attempt to make the case that the OSS signif icantly aff ected the outcome of the war. Yet Donovan had no f ewer than 28 networks working in southern France by the spring of 1944, which was no mean f eat.

The aut hor is caustic about the OSS operations in Italy, citing several "bad operational breakdowns and security lapses," not least when some OSS off icers pocketed the cash intended f or bribing Axis off icials. Yet Donovan got a grip on the situation by the time of the f all of Rome in June 1944, setting himself up at the Grand Hotel Plaza there and sending no f ewer than half his off icers home.

Just as he had no great respect f or the inviolability of embassies, Donovan had little time for the Geneva Convention. In an operation codenamed "Sauerkraut," he organized the recruitment of angry and disaff ected German soldiers f rom POW camps—i.e., sour krauts—and slipped them behind enemy lines in their Wehrmacht unif orms to plant subversive propaganda, gather intelligence and lower enemy morale. The scheme worked better than the absurd idea of having planes drop leaf lets over Hailing f rom a poor Catholic neighborhood in Buff alo, Germany showing, as Donovan put it in a memo, "pictures of succulent, appetizing dishes that would N.Y., Donovan (1883-1959) won early renown as the make a hungry person almost go mad with longing." most-decorated officer of World War I, earning the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal with two oak-leaf clusters, two Purple Hearts and the Congressional Medal of Honor. When Wild Bill Donovan he later sent any of his 10,000 OSS operatives into harm's way during World War II, they knew that he was not asking anything of them that he hadn't himself already done.

By Douglas Waller Free Press, 466 pages, $30

After World War I, Donovan went into the law and politics, f ailing to become lieutenant governor of New York in 1922 or governor in 1932. In the course of the gubernatorial campaign, he described the Democratic presidential nominee Roosevelt as "a new kind of red, white and blue dictator" with "delusions of grandeur." Worse, when he met Mussolini in 1936 he congratulat ed the dictator on Italy's "unity of spirit" and the Italian general Piet ro Badoglio on his "great victory" over the poor, gassed, brutalized Abyssinian tribesmen. On German f ascism, Donovan was f ar sounder, protesting in 1933 over the Nazis' ill treatment of Jewish judges.

Another black propaganda wheeze was to produce f ake German mailbags stuff ed with poison-pen letters whose addresses were copied f rom prewar German phone directories. The mailbags were then air-dropped in the hope that German civilians would give them to postmen to deliver. The commitment of the OSS to getting every detail right was such that when it produced f ake Polish army uniforms, the buttons had to be sewn onto coats by threading the holes parallel, in the European style, rather than crisscrossing them.

By July 1940, Donovan was one of the leading advocates of active aid to Britain and an opponent of America First isolationism, visiting London in a semi-official capacity and becoming convinced that Winston Churchill was f ighting civilization's f ight. The prime minister reciprocated by praising Donovan's "animating heart -warming f lame" to FDR. With British assistance, Donovan toured Yugoslavia, Turk ey, the Middle East and Spain, sending back encouraging cables. Walter Lippmann claimed that Donovan had "almost singlehandedly overcome the unmitigated def eatism which was paralyzing Washington."

Donovan, who had come to admire FDR proposed to the president the creation of a spy and sabotage service based on Britain's MI6, "with men calculatingly reckless with disciplined daring." With the support of the secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, but in the teeth of the opposition of practically everyone else, Donovan was appointed "Coordinator of Inf ormation" in July 1941. Roosevelt loved the intelligence with which Donovan then deluged him —more than 200 memos in his f irst six months—calling him "my secret legs."

The tales of OSS derring-do—one agent, Virginia Hall, had a prosthetic leg f rom a prewar hunting accident but was still parachuted into Occupied France— are thrilling and none more so than the elaborate effort, in July 1941, to burgle the saf e in the Spanish embassy in Washington f or the diplomatic codebooks. The meticulous preparation and sheer chutzpah of the operation—inf iltrating a secretary, distracting the embassy staff , sending in a saf e-cracker, photographing and replacing the codebooks within hours —was extraordinary, not least because it had to be undertaken monthly when the codes changed. One can't help sympathizing with Donovan when the OSS had to curtail its activities because the FBI turned out to be up to the same thing. (When FD R ordained that it was hencef orth to be the FBI's job to break into embassies, Donovan promptly started spying on the FBI, concluding that Hoover was "a f airy" —just as Hoover was concluding that Donovan was a serial adulterer.)

The stories of the OSS's homelier operations are superb, too. Gland experts produced f emale sex hormones to inject into Hitler's vegetable so that his mustache would f all out and his voice go soprano. Planes released bats that were f itted with time-delayed incendiary devices. They were supposed to fly under the eaves of German houses and blow them up; in f act, the poor creatures dropped like stones.

For every success Donovan could claim —such as the German agent Fritz Kolbe, who stole 1,600 documents f rom the f oreign ministry in Berlin and took them to an OSS saf e house in Switzerland — there was a f ailure: for example Donovan's prediction, supposedly based on firm intelligence, that the Third Reich would "collapse . . . a f ew months" after D -Day.

The value of Donovan's organization is best seen at the time of Operation Overlord, when the OSS and the British Special Operations Executive dropped 10,000 tons of weaponry and equipment to the French Resistance, which put it to good use in slowing down the German counter attack. As he watched the D-Day landings f rom the deck of the USS Tuscaloosa, which was giving and receiving f ire off Utah Beach, Donovan was in his element. His contribution to the winning of the war is necessarily hard to quantif y, but by the end of Mr. Waller's chronicle a f air-minded reader will judge it to have been considerable.

President Truman disbanded the OSS on Sept. 20, 1945, within a week of the Japanese surrender and just as the Soviet Union seemed to pose a new threat. His antipathy toward Donovan was f ueled

by Hoover's disgusting (and untruthf ul) allegation that among Wild Bill's many mistresses was Donovan's own daughter-in-law. Yet such was America's need f or an OSS substitute that only two years later the organization was res uscitated with a new name —the Central Intelligenc e Agency—but without its great wartime leader. He deserved better.

done. His questions are direct, insightful, and he is not afraid to hit the big issues head-on.” –Craig Miller, Ultimate Airball CONTACT Wayne Montle, Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast is a show about paintball that is distributed over the internet using podcast technology. Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast listeners can hear the episodes whenever they want, at home or on the go – even on the way to the game.

BRWP is available on iTunes or directly from the website brwp.net.

Web: http://brwp.net Email: studio@brwp.net Voice: 303-952-0274 Twitter: @brwp_studio Facebook: facebook.com/brwp.net

THE SHOW A new episode of Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast is released about once a week, and each show is about 20 to 30 minutes long.

The show contains information that is useful to both experienced players and those that are new to the sport. The content is always family-friendly, making it easily accessible to all ages.

D-Day’s Allied Commander

Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast features a wide variety of topics related to big games, recreational paintball, and scenario play.

Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast is best known for its in-depth interviews. BRWP features discussions with players, field and store owners, tournament directors, and paintball industry innovators. The conversations always dig deep and get the whole story – this allows the audience to hear the true voice of the guest.

D-Day’s German Commander Andy Wofford started playing paintball in 1995 with a Stingray before moving up to a Rainmaker. He soon moved to tournament speedball and picked up a hot pink Angel as his primary marker. Because The Bunker was close to his home, he began playing there on the speedball field. During this time, he worked for five years for JT Sports, first running their warehouse in JT‘s Neosho complex and later moving into Quality Control. Andy first played in OK D-Day in 2000 as a member of the 101st Airborne. Andy was immediately hooked on the game, but he wanted to see what the game was like from the other side so he joined the St. Lo German defenders which later became the 726th Infantrie. After two years of protecting the German HQ in the 726th, Andy accepted command of the unit and served faithfully in that role until after the 2007 game. After many beverages with friends following that game, Andy was told he had agreed to become the German Field Marshall, a position he has held from 2008 to the present. In those three years, the OK D-Day German Army is undefeated. Andy is currently a member of the Third Reich Army and is also associated with the Land Shark Group, a group of DDay commanders that wreaks havoc together in events outside of D-Day.

Throughout the podcast the themes of safety and sportsmanship are emphasized. Guests that appear on the show are selected based on their reputation in the industry and on the field.

Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast is produced and hosted by Wayne Montle in Boulder, Colorado. Color commentary is provided by co-host Ben Holder from Brisbane, Australia. Ben is a knowledgeable and respected member of the Australian paintball community.

Jason ‗Grifter‘ White

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast has been met with great approval in the woodsball community and the paintball industry. Here are a few of the comments: “I was just listening to your coverage of last year’s Oklahoma D-Day event. I really like what you are doing with your podcast, definitely the best paintball related podcast I have heard.” –Aaron P. “Wayne Montle’s podcast interview is extremely well

Jason White is the team captain of ‗Team Wetworkz,‘ paintball team based out of Kansas City, MO. His first D-Day experience took place back in 2002. Before being appointed as the Allied SAC Jason headed up the US Rangers. One of the things Jason is best noted for doing since taking charge as SAC s instilling the same core values he brought to with him to the Rangers, Honor, hard play and fun.

Andy Wofford

By 1943, the War Department had acquired a total of 42,786.41 acres of land that made up Camp Crowder. In order to establish this camp, major improvements had to be made in roads, utilities, railroad spurs, sewage system, and numerous buildings including barracks, mess halls and training facilities. It‘s hard to imagine a post the size of Crowder.

The Post Exchange had twenty-two branches, with three beauty parlors for WACs and female civilian employees. The post also had Camp Crowder was located on the edge of the picturesque Ozark mountain re- two cafeterias for civilian workers. Camp gion, five miles south of Neosho MO, a thriv- Crowder had its own post newspaper called the Camp Crowder Message with a circulaing community with a pre-war population of 5,000. Joplin is 25 miles to the north. It was tion of 15,000. There were also four service named for General Enoch Herbert Crowder, clubs on post along with guest houses for a native Missourian, who authored the Selec- soldier‘s guests. Crowder had six movie theaters on post. There were sixteen chapels tive Service Act of World War I. with a chaplain for each providing regular Fort Crowder was built in 1941 as a training Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Christian Science services. Camp Crowder had its center for the U. S. Army Signal Corps and own large well-staffed hospital and in addiat its peak had nearly 47,000 troops station had 15 infirmaries throughout the camp tioned there. Camp Crowder was activated and three dental clinics. There was a field shortly after the beginning of WWII and served as the temporary home of thousands house for athletic events and other activities that could seat 5,000 persons. of male, female, white and black soldiers.

The construction of Camp Crowder, one of Famous Visitorsthe largest army installations in the Midwest, Mort Walker, the artist who is best known for doubled the population of Neosho in a matter the popular ‗Beetle Bailey‘ comic strip uses of weeks. Camp Crowder received most of his personal experiences at Camp Crowder the Army's signal recruits, each of whom as the model for "Camp Swampy." The charspent three weeks learning the basics of sol- acter ―Rob Petrie‖ played by Dick Van Dyke, diering: drill; equipment, clothing, and tent was also stationed at Camp Crowder in epipitching; first aid; defense against chemical sodes of his TV show as was the actor himattack; articles of war; basic signal communi- self. cation; interior guard duty; military discipline; and rifle marksmanship.

In July 1942, the Midwestern Signal Corps School opened its doors at Camp Crowder with a capacity of 6,000 students. The following month, the Signal Corps' first unit training center also opened there. The camp, a U.S. Army Signal Corp Training Center, flooded the area with a population of 40,000 uniformed men and women.

luncheon meat to help housewives stretch their budget dollars. But when the combination of cheaper competition and the Great Depression caused sales to drop, company president Jay Hormel decided in 1936 to relaunch the product with a glitzy marketing campaign and a new name.

WWII era SPAM can.

Now Jackson had his acorns And Grant his precious rye; Teddy had his poisoned beef— Worse you couldn’t buy.

The doughboy had his hardtack Without the navy’s jam, But armies on their stomachs move— And this one moves on Spam.

—Anonymous World War II poem

Hormel Spiced Ham, the ―father‖ of Spam, was created in 1927 as an inexpensive

When America entered the war, Spam became both the boon and bane of troops. Because it was so easy to transport in large quantities, and had a long shelf life, tons of it—ultimately more than 150 million pounds—accompanied them. Though the services purchased luncheon meats made by other companies, all looked alike. As At the New Year‘s Eve party held at his Spam was the most famous of them, all such home he announced a name-the-product meats came to be called Spam. It wasn‘t contest with the prize winner receiving $100. long before the troops, seemingly served The sixty-five guests attending had to Spam three times a day, seven days a week ―purchase‖ their drinks by completing a confor the duration, got thoroughly sick of the test entry. Hormel recalled, ―Along about the stuff. third or fourth drink they began showing some imagination.‖ Finally, the butler brought Inevitably, it became the butt of jokes. to Hormel a sheet of paper containing the Among the printable barbs were such lines word ―Spam.‖ Whether or not the entry writ- as ―Spam is a ham that didn‘t pass its physiten by Kenneth Daigneau, a Broadway actor cal.‖ and ―Spam is a meatball without basic and brother to Hormel vice president R. H. training.‖ A Life magazine cartoon in which Daigneau, was a piece of inspiration fueled an angry GI is waving a slice of luncheon by inebriation, the fact is he won. In 1937 meat at the cook shouts, ―Whadya mean Spam, or according to the company: luncheon meat? I say it‘s Spam and I say to SPAM®, a mixture of chopped pork shoulhell with it!‖ It was a sentiment shared by der, ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, many a serviceman. and sodium nitrite, was launched.

But Russians and the English defended With the signing of Lend-Lease in March Spam, with the former calling it ―Roosevelt 1941, shipments of Spam were included in Sausage‖ and the latter serving Escallope of the aid transported to Great Britain and the Spam in fine restaurants. In an attempt to Soviet Union. It was gratefully accepted by halt the negative American troop comments, both the military and civilian populations. Fu- the London Daily Mail ran an article with a ture British Prime Minister Margaret front-page headline proclaiming ―Spam Has Thatcher, then a teenager working in her Suffered Enough.‖ parents‘ grocery store, called it ―a war-time After the war, General Dwight Eisenhower delicacy.‖ On Boxing Day (the day after wrote a letter to a retired Hormel executive Christmas) 1943, she recalled, ―We had commenting on his company‘s famous prodfriends in and we opened a tin of Spam uct. ―During World War II, of course, I ate my luncheon meat. We had some lettuce and share of Spam along with millions of other tomatoes and peaches, so it was Spam and soldiers. I‘ll even confess to a few unkind resalad.‖ And Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev marks about it, you understand. But as forwrote in his autobiography, ―Without Spam, mer Commander-in-Chief, I believe I can still we wouldn‘t have been able to feed our arofficially forgive you your only sin: sending us my.‖ so much of it.‖

Normandy and many other places in France. We owe them a debt of gratitude for undertaking this task, which they do of their own will and are happy to do so, to pay tribute and respect to some soldier, whom they do not know, but HE gave his life for their Freedom and Liberty.

They do not know who this young man is, who gave his life in the prime of his life, but they consider him as “Their adopted son”. They visit his grave frequently during the year and place flowers on his grave as a sign of respect and honor for what he did 65 years ago.

I am very fortunate to have been asked to return to Normandy to speak to the 5 th Congress of “Les Fleurs de la Memoire” at the beginning of April, to express my appreciation to all of the members of this organization for their undying appreciation of the effort that these Heroes who gave their lives for the Liberty and Freedom that they and their children and grandchildren enjoy today.

Les Fleurs de la Memoire For those of you who do not speak French, this title means “The Flowers of Memory”. The Flowers of Memory for what?? This is a long but interesting story.

Many years ago there was a far sighted man in Holland who thought that it would be a nice gesture to pay tribute to the many fallen American heroes who were lying in the Netherlands-American Cemetery at Margraten in Holland. Here there are 8,400 American soldiers lying at rest, with nobody to ‘care for them’, and it is too far for their next-of-kin to visit them very often, if ever.

He organized the people of Holland to adopt these graves, and the result was an over-subscription by the people to adopt these graves. The result being that every single grave was adopted, some by more than one family.

This tradition of adoption is being handed down to the next generation, and in some cases it is in the hands of a third generation.

I dwelled on this wonderful idea and thought that it might be a good idea to try to initiate this type of program in other American Military cemeteries.

Having a very good and close friend in Normandy, France, I approached him with this idea, and we discussed it in much detail over several days. At the end of this time, he, Mr. Claude Lavieille, agreed to attempt to do this in the nearby Normandy and Brittany Cemeteries, where a total of about 15,000 American soldiers – I mean Heroes – are buried – forever! Seldom will any of their next-of-kin ever be able to visit these graves, but, They Are NOT Forgotten!!

It has been over ten years since” Les Fleurs de la Memoire” was conceived and as of the last count, there have been over 7,600 graves adopted by the people of

Tablets listing MIA from Normandy Beaches

It is very important that we make every effort to keep the memory of these heroes alive for as long as we can. However, since we are 3,000 miles away, it is not practical to believe that we can visit and pay tribute to these heroes very often, if ever, so we are very fortunate to have this organization, “Les Fleurs de la Memoire” to lend a hand in keeping this memory alive for us.

If any of you readers are interested in learning more about this organization, and if you have access to a computer, please look at: http://fleursdelamemoire.free.fr and you will have a better concept of the goals of this organization.

Les Fleurs de la Memoire is aimed at the education of the younger generation and they discuss the cause and effect of WWII of their area, and how this has affected them today, and they are taken on educational trips to the Normandy & Brittany Cemeteries, particularly in the time period just before Memorial Day, and each child places a floral tribute on a grave of his choice.

Normandy Cemetery Headstones

It is a wonderful experience to be there on Memorial Day, when on special occasions, each child, stationed behind the grave marker on each grave site, has a white pigeon which is released upon command. Such a tremendous sight, and the expression of the outpouring of Love of these children towards their Hero, is more than heart-warming!

Long may “Les Fleurs de la Memoire” live”!

Vive l’Ameirique! Vive la France!

So it goes with the people of Normandy and most all of France – They still Love and Admire us as their Liberators who gave them Liberty and Freedom in 1944, and they have not forgotten us after all of these past sixty plus years, and they instill the thought into the minds of their children: “Never Let This Happen Again ”!

Frank W. Towers Misty morning cemetery view