Photo credit: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
OPERATION OVERLORD: So many men. The stakes were so high.It's the seventieth anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops stormed the beaches in Normand to fight against the Nazis.
I looked to multiple resources for something to show the kids to convey the importance of D-Day to them. There are so many retellings, but one thing I learned at my wonderful college, where almost no textbooks were used, is that there is no substitute for primary sources. And so, when I happened upon a Smithsonian newsreel featuring boots-on-the-ground footage of the ramp-up and invasion, I knew that was the ticket.
Truth be told, I hadn't planned on us watching the whole 28 minutes of minutes of the Smithsonian video, but once we tuned in, it was IMPOSSIBLE to tune out. It wasn't flashy, it was raw and it was real.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/3play_1/archival-footage-of-d-day/?no-ist
According to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, 2,499 Americans were lost on invasion day. Hundreds upon hundreds of allies were killed, too. There were so many heroes that day, including Star Trek's "Scotty," James Doohan, who was shot multiple times that day.
I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT: It's darn near summertime, and the kids have been lobbying to sleep out on the deck. Last night was their first 'summer' sleepout.
It happened to coincide with a long, bright flyover of the International Space Station last night!
As we watched it buzz by, I remarked that it seemed unusually bright. Today, we read that the solstice is bringing unending day to crew aboard ISS. On th etop half of the diagram (from NASA/SDO/Rice)
is the ISS' typical sunset-every 45-minute path.
MYSTERY SOLVED: Yesterday we reported seeing three WWII era planes overhead and said we surmised they were part of a WWII/D-Day commemoration. Turns out that was the case, and here's a WAY better image of their flyover.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023779055_ddayplanesxml.html
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