D-Day

  Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, D-Day.  I am thinking about my last trip to Normandy as I sit here and watch the celebration coverage on t.v. .  J and I went there with my parents.  We drove through and visited many of the towns and villages that the military fought to take back from the Germans, from Caen to Saint-Lo to Saint-Mere-Eglise.  We also visited both Utah and Omaha Beach.  This year, D-Day, the landings, and the push through Normandy has come to mean something even more to me.  Yes, I can't deny that seeing these places, being there and witnessing the scars left behind bring a "realness" to the war and to a life  that I never experienced having been born long after the war was over.

Utah Beach, May 2014

  With the help of these new experiences, I was able to learn about my grandpa.  My grandpa on my mom's side died when I was still quite young.  I never really knew him, and even my parents didn't know much about his military experience.  He was a mechanic in the army During WWII, and that's all he would tell people that he did, fix cars.  Now, thanks to the power of the internet, we know so much more about what my grandpa witnessed. 

My Grandpa, Robert W. Early, Tech 5, 29th Infantry 45th Division 729th Company

  To take a few steps back, this quest for knowledge began because there was supposed to be a "wall" of some sort in Normandy where we could find my grandpa's name.  Well, I love to forget something of importance every time we travel, and this time I forgot the paperwork that my grandma sent along with my mom which supposedly detailed this "wall".  Thus, we didn't find it on our trip to Normandy. Why do I keep quoting "wall" and italicizing some form of suppose, you ask?  Interestingly enough, there is not a "wall" to find.  My grandma "donated" $40 many years back (in preparation for the 50th anniversary of D-Day) to have my grandpa's name inscribed on a wall to honor all veteran's from WWII, The Wall of Liberty.  Evidently, it was a poorly managed foundation and it never happened.  It's still unclear to me, after sifting through the internet, what exactly happened to my grandma's money; not to mention money from all the tens of thousands of others who donated. 

  So, trying to find out what happened to the "wall" started this internet investigation on my grandpa.  All I had was the information my mom brought with her to France from my grandma - an informational pamphlet on the "Wall of Liberty" and his discharge papers.  I started by searching for something about his infantry unit.  I knew from his discharge papers that my grandpa joined the Army in March 1943; he had just turned 18 in January. The 29th Infantry (another link detailing the 29th) sent men to Omaha Beach on D-Day.   The rest of the division disembarked as reinforcements the next day.  My grandpa was on Omaha Beach as part of Operation Overlord.  He was 19. 

Mom, Dad, and J on Omaha Beach.  May 2014

   This was just the beginning of his war experience.  After capturing the beachhead, his division marched to Saint-Lo (here's a link to a very detailed battle of Saint-Lo) for a battle that lasted weeks, suffered many causalities, destroyed 95% of the town, and became a key win in taking Normandy from the Germans.  It has even been immortalized in the video game, Call of Duty.

These are some pictures that I found on the internet listed as the 729th ordnance of the 29th Infantry.  I would link the original source, but it is blocked to me.

  In the 29th, my grandpa was part of the 729th Ordnance and Light Maintenance Company.  The 729th was a support company for the division.  Now, I don't know exactly what part my grandpa played in these battles or the others he went onto fight as they moved through Normandy into Germany, but I do know he received 4 Bronze Stars for his efforts.  Bronze Stars are given for valor, and valor isn't something you earn by fixing cars.  I found an article with an interview from men that were in grandpa's 729th Ordnance Company, and he had this to say, "We were supposed to be further back from the front lines," Shindledecker said. "I never thought we were going to be assault troops, but that's what we were on D-Day.".  I suspect from this that my grandpa was there, on Omaha Beach, "Bloody Omaha" on D-Day.  I can't fathom. 

The hill where the Germans were bunkered in at Omaha Beach.  May 2014

  It's no wonder that my grandpa didn't want to talk about what he did in the war.  The amount of death and destruction happening all around you at age 19 had to be beyond words and not something to dwell on.  I'm lucky that my grandpa made it home alive and that, even for a short time, I was able to know him.  As I listen to the ceremonies today, I am proud to say that my grandpa is one of the men they honor.  I am so humbled to learn of what he and so many others did for the world.  I don't have anything particularly poignant or revelatory to add to all that has been already said about the sacrifices that these men, their generation, and the world gave to everyone who followed.  I only want to try to tell my grandpa's story, however incomplete and fractured it may be.  This is a day and a man that I will never let be forgotten. 

My grandpa, Robert Early, digging  foxhole in WWII.