Thought I would drop a photo of my Grandfather 2nd husband of my Grandmother. He was Army Texas 36th Division during WW-II, a Half Track scout driver. The 36th was the first American division to land on European soil during the war, it was not D-Day but 30 days prior on Anzio. His division was moved into the landing area of D-Day 30 days later than June 6th. His armor unit was then assigned to 7th Army the new command of Patton. He never spoke about his time in the war until 1970 I would go visit him late evenings where he worked for Peden Iron and Steel as a night watchman. He had it pretty rough and only mentioned a few things that I suppose was stuck in his mind. One thing he talked about was how careful they had to be when stopping at empty farm houses and barns, the Germans were on full retreat and booby trapped anything they thought a GI would pick up. So I thought about him today and he has been gone now since 86, his older brother died a couple years after that and he had served in the Navy during WW-II. The youngest brother served Army Pacific. His brother that was Navy was stationed about 60 miles north of me in Vietnam and I was not aware of where he was at that time but he retired from there anyway so I wouldn't have been able to catch him before he left. He was a senior chief working in intelligence for the Riverine Force. We often flew over his base over the 3 years I was there. Got a very good video telling the history of the 36th. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Texas+36th+Division+and+D-Day&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IeJlr0iF6A
My mother's first husband died in WW11, her new husbands parashoot didn't open as he jumped out over France.
I bet if they could see what we did to the country they fought and bled for they would all be turning over in their graves. Remember what Ben Franklin said " a Republic if you can keep it". I think it was Franklin.
Many were lost in the first wave of airborne drops, most were shot down before they had a chance to jump or were flown into by their planes being so disorganized at altitudes. In the mid sixties when I was a paratrooper the riggers were pretty good and there were very few incidents of chutes not opening. There were a couple deaths due to the planes flying the wrong altitude at drop time. We had reserve chutes but I don't know if the WWII troopers had a reserve chute. I have a good photo of my Grandfather in color that was taken either on the landing at Anzio or the moving to France from Anzio. I have it on a portable drive I will have to get it and post it soon.
Glad you made it back ok from Nam and thanks for your service. I saw some WW11 vets when I visited Nam vets at VA Hospital in Georgia. Saw some really bad injuries.