Home of the Free Because of the Brave

Home of the Free Because of the Brave

(ROCKWALL, TX — June 10, 2019) What were you doing June 6, 1944?  My Mother was working at the drugstore in Brownwood, TX, while Daddy, Uncle Sam & Uncle Joe (his two brothers) were in Africa & Sicily fighting to keep their homeland free from the horrors of Nazi Germany. I have all of the letters he sent Mother, THE THREE YEARS he was away from her. Needless to say, he was not the same man she married when he returned, but along the rest of those serving with him, he came home, built a business, a home, a family… and played a great game of golf.

But we do know someone who spent that day in 1944 submerged in brown choppy water up to his waist after joining his platoon in leaving a Higgins, the chief vessel used to carry infantrymen to Utah & Omaha Beach Normandy.  Most from his platoon in the 90th Infantry, did not survive the day.  After seeing Saving Private Ryan, I don’t know how ANYONE survived that day, let alone lived to tell about it.

We honored this man today with our feeble attempts to appear grateful.  Having absolutely no idea what these great men lived through it’s hard to get details from them.  Many simply have lost the memory of those moments which I suppose might be a grace gift.  We have pictures, crackly recordings and many attempts by Hollywood to acquaint us with the reality of D Day.

We simply enjoy the words the pieces of fabric try to tell us…

HOME OF THE FREE…BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!

Thank you, Greatest Generation.  Though many have no thought of the meaning of that day or that time in history, I will remind all of us,

“Greater love has no man that this, than to lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:13

By Paula Lively. Paula is a Volunteer Chaplain at Broadmoor Medical Lodge in Rockwall. She is a VERY retired RN who loves serving the residents at Broadmoor. She and her husband, Fred, have lived in Rockwall for 15 years.