Thanks Robin for your link to the "Soaring Valor" video with Gary Sinise. I don't know if anyone noticed but there was a gentleman featured in the video, Jack Sinise who turns out to be Gary's uncle. See the link below to see more of how great a man Gary Sinise is. God bless him. We should honor him with an honorary PGCA membership because I'm sure if he shot a shotgun it would be a Parker.

https://vimeo.com/121604425

Just finished mowing the family cemetery plots and planting geraniums. My parents always did that on Memorial weekend to tribute those no longer with us. I like carrying on the tradition. My dad was a WWII vet serving on the USS Block Island. An escort carrier sunk in the Atlantic. As a boy I used to ride around with him visiting his friends and hearing the war and other stories. I miss listening to the talk and wish I had sense enough to write down what I heard back then. I remember much of it but wish I could remember down to the small details. The stories...war and otherwise...were very captivating to a young boy. Talk of men and what they had done and what they could do. Boy I miss those days!

Me too!

Dean, could you identify by name the patriots you pictured in your grouping. What is the actual family relationship of the Patton granddaughter in law?

Hi Bill - In my post, in which I posted the pictures, I am pretty sure I identified the 'Patriots' pictured. Gen. George S. Patton's granddaughter-in-law is Joanne Holbrook Patton and is the wife of the General's grandson. I don't know what his name was but he is deceased. The picture of the young soldier is of my father-in-law, Frank A. Nerden, taken when he was on leave in Australia. The last picture of the gentleman in the American flag necktie is Col. Richard A. Moody, USAF Ret. and is the founder of Operation Troop Support and was a childhood neighbor and good friend of mine.






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Thanks, Dean.

I just posted this to my daughter's Facebook page. Sad to say his story has been overlooked to the point of being forgotten by the other side of the family. Thanks to the internet I was able to gather some information.

"Something for you to think about this Memorial Day. In the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer France there is a marker, plot C, row 19, grave 30, for a young Army paratrooper assigned to the 505th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was part of the first wave of the assault on D-Day, 6/6/1944. His unit parachuted into enemy territory at night and liberated the first town in France, St. Mere Eglise, where to this day a mannequin of a paratrooper suspended from the steeple of a church hangs in remembrance. He had previously jumped into combat in the fight for Italy where he was wounded. He was wounded again at Normandy and died from his wounds on 7/3/1944. This is your Great Uncle Private First Class John R. O'Byrne, your Grandmother's brother on your mother's side of the family."

Good job Pete. That may be the best thing you will have done this year.






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Great stuff, Pete! Do you know what battalion he was assigned to in the 505th?
Track me down at Hausmann's. Have done a lot of research on the 82nd that fateful night.