Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
View Profile
« February 2009 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
You are not logged in. Log in
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
Dooley Noted
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Normandy, France
Mood:  happy

From the 3rd to the 6th of February, I went on a business trip to France.   The Brigade Commander organized what’s called a Staff Ride.  Basically, that’s when a Commander takes a bunch of people of his choosing to see something historic (usually a battlefield) and use the lessons learned from history to discuss some current event.  This time, the Commander chose all field-grade Officers (Majors and above) and Sergeants-Major to go to Normandy.  We had three purposes; 1) Learn what happened on D-Day, 2) teambuilding, and 3) Discuss current lessons learned from history that will still apply to deployments today.

The concept was pretty cool.  Each of the Battalions were assigned an Area of Responsibility, within which they were to talk about the D-Day planning for that area, which units were involved, the training they undertook, and what actually happened and where.   Our travels took us from the beaches (Utah, Omaha, and Pont Du Hoc), through the hedgerows and farmlands, and even to the site of several of the airborne insertions of both the American Paratroopers and the British Glider Infantry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had the opportunity to see several museums, townships, farmhouses, and churches that played major parts in D-Day, including a really neat little town called St Mere Egilse.  For those that have sen the John Wayne movie The Longest Day, that is the location where the Paratrooper got hung up on the church steeple.  That event really happened.  –The trooper was shot in the leg, but lived, was eventually lowered and captured by the Germans, but escaped shortly thereafter.  He ended up surviving the war and living into old age, mostly splitting his time between America and St Mere Eglise, where he was something of a folk-hero.  The church, to this day, has a parachute on its steeple.  Once a year they change it out as it gets old and starts to break down.  Two of the larger stained glass windows contain paratroopers.  The whole town had stuff like “The Airborne Cafe” and the “82nd Eattery.”  The town (actually all of Normandy) had more American flags flying in February (the off-season for tourists) than I can remember flying in one town in the States, ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked the battlefields, “stormed” the beach, and finally got to spend some quite time in the National American Cemetery, amongst the white cross and star headstones.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fantastic trip! –But one that I did without Kimberly or Jacoby.


Posted by kisajaja at 8:57 PM CET
Updated: Thursday, 12 February 2009 9:12 PM CET
Post Comment | Permalink

View Latest Entries