jtexas
Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2003
- Messages
- 8,646
This veteran's day weekend, I attended with my father in Washington, DC the annual reunion of his WWII battalion (555th antiaircraft artillery) Total attendance was about 250, with about 60 veterans. Events included a tour of Arlington Cemetary, a visit to the WWII memorial, and breakfast at the White House. The breakfast buffet was set out in the East Room and in the State Dining Room. President and Mrs. Bush stood in a receiving line to meet and be photographed with each veteran and his family, and afterwards the president posed for a group photo with the veterans. What made the trip worthwhile for me was meeting the man with whom Dad shared a pup-tent for nearly a year under the most difficult of circumstances - theyd not seen each other or spoken since June 1945.
The men I met were intensely proud of their service, and you might hear the family members bragging on them but about the most any of the veterans would say was along the lines of, well, we just did what we could. So if you dont mind, Id like to take a minute to brag about my fathers unit, the 555th AAA (AW) BN (M). They landed on Normandy beach 01 Oct 1944 and were attached to the 104th Infantry Division under the command of General Terry Allen. Provided antiaircraft defense of bridge sites in Belgium and Germany, and ground support for infantry crossing of the Roer and Rhine rivers, and assaults of many towns including Antwerp and Cologne. In April 1945 they liberated the Nordhausen concentration camp, a forced-labor manufacturing facility of V-1 and V-2 bombs.
[source: as reported by HQS. BTRY., 555TH AAA AW BN (M), National Archives]
Im going to include here the entire text from a document provided by the White House to the veterans of the 555th:
The men I met were intensely proud of their service, and you might hear the family members bragging on them but about the most any of the veterans would say was along the lines of, well, we just did what we could. So if you dont mind, Id like to take a minute to brag about my fathers unit, the 555th AAA (AW) BN (M). They landed on Normandy beach 01 Oct 1944 and were attached to the 104th Infantry Division under the command of General Terry Allen. Provided antiaircraft defense of bridge sites in Belgium and Germany, and ground support for infantry crossing of the Roer and Rhine rivers, and assaults of many towns including Antwerp and Cologne. In April 1945 they liberated the Nordhausen concentration camp, a forced-labor manufacturing facility of V-1 and V-2 bombs.
[source: as reported by HQS. BTRY., 555TH AAA AW BN (M), National Archives]
Im going to include here the entire text from a document provided by the White House to the veterans of the 555th:
