Sixty five years ago today

Sixty five years ago today I was 19 years old, stationed at the Naval Training Station at Farragut, Idaho, having been in the service for a little over a year. We were still losing the war in both Europe and the Pacific.

For the past few weeks my duties had included manning the office at the railroad station on the base where new recruits arrived almost daily. I worked the night shift. I would meet the train, receive the service records from whoever was in charge of the group. I would then separate the service records from the health records and send each record to the appropriate office. Not a particularly demanding job.

Often there was no train scheduled for that night so I spent my time listening to the radio.
Some time around 3:00 a.m. the radio station interruped its regular broadcast to bring us a news break: German short wave radio was saying the invasion of Europe had begun. There was no confirmation by the allied military forces, but that brief message was enough to glue me (and the rest of the nation) to the radio for the next several hours.

Little by little, additonal information was received. General Eisenhower had confirmed that the landing in Normandy had begun.

I will never forget the thrill I got from listening to that broadcast. I was thousands of miles removed from the action, but, being in the service, I was living every moment of it.

Last night Shirley and I watched "Saving Private Ryan" on TCM. It brought that day vividly to life.

If you Goggle "D Day broadcast" you can listen to the same news breaks I was listening to sixty five years ago.

As the editorial in today's Deseret News said, D Day changed the history of the world. If it hadn't succeeded, things could have turned out much differently. Be gratful.