Friday, January 23, 2015

Omaha Beach, Normandy

One last thing from 2014 that I forgot to blog about!  Leevi and Charlie Green took a trip to Normandy.  It was a place we all wanted to see but the 10+ hour drive was just too daunting!  The guys made a golf weekend out of it and had plenty of bonding time on that long drive in the tiny rental Fiat! :)  
Somehow they got two sets of golf clubs and pushcarts along with their luggage to fit!  Clown car to the extreme! :) 
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial









It was a very moving experience for both of them.










I asked my dad for some info about my grandparent's families who had fought in WWII. My grandmother on my dad's side had two brothers die in WWII.  Bobby (Robert) was a year out of high school and landed at Normandy and died June 15, 1944.  He was buried in France and after the war his remains were exhumed and reburied in Charlotte at the same cemetery that Gramps is buried in, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Charlotte.  One of her other brothers was also KIA, James Blalock (Blalock).  The neighborhood kids called him The Professor. Before they could do anything, they checked with Blalock.   He had red hair and was very athletic, learned and respected. I am told that he was a great golfer.  I was able to find this info below about him online.  My grandmother's oldest brother survived the war and her youngest brother was too young to be drafted.
    
This is info on my grandfather, James W. Watt, also on my dad's side.  He died just a few weeks after Hailey was born: TRANSPORT PILOT. 314TH SQUADRON, 9TH AIR FORCE. EUROPE 1943-1945. AIRLIFT OF WOUNDED, AIR DELIVERY OF PRIORITY SUPPLIES. REPATRIATION OF PRISONER'S OF WAR.   Gramps also had 3 brothers who served in the war: Eddie and Harold were Officers in the Navy (Atlantic Theater I think) and Walt was the youngest and served as an enlisted man in the Pacific Theater, eventually “occupying” Japan after the war.  He claims to be the last Sailor to come home because he was single and low priority to come home.  


 
 

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