Commentary This Sunday marks the 77th anniversary of the greatest gamble in World War II. On June 6, 1941, more than 156,0000 allied forces launched from the sea onto the beaches of Normandy. Nearly 7,000 allied ships commanded the French coastline, and more than 3,200 aircraft dominated the skies. A few miles inland, 23,000 paratroopers…
Telling the Stories of World War II Veterans: ‘Time Is of the Essence!’
Tracie Hunter is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who, for the past five years, has focused her film skills on telling the stories of World War II veterans. Through her organization WWII Beyond the Call, Hunter and her team of volunteer filmmakers have been seeking out, sitting down, and capturing the harrowing stories of soldiers…
Do You Have His Medals?
Commentary He was six-foot-four-inches tall. Born May 11, 1919, in Houston, Texas, Harold Johnson would have been a giant among the English during World War II. This American war hero gave his medals to a little boy who sat next to him on a train on the first leg of his journey home from England….
A Vietnam Memorial: Remembering Heroes and Villains From an Unpopular Conflict
Commentary Memorial Day ceremonies tend to feature World War II, with good reason. The Allies’ triumph over the Axis powers gave people cause to celebrate. Presidents who served in World War II include Dwight Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces, and George H.W. Bush, a pilot with Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), shot down by the Japanese…
World War II Love Letters Discovered Under UK Hotel Floorboards During Renovation
The love letters of a World War II couple have been discovered in an oceanside hotel in England, where they were concealed underneath the floorboards for nearly eight decades. Found beneath a first-floor utility room at the Esplanade Hotel in Scarborough during renovations, the letters tell the story of two lovers pining for one another…
Remember the Forgotten Heroes
Commentary By some estimates, 2,520 veterans of the D-Day operation, the largest amphibious invasion in history, remain alive in 2021. Less well known are the troops of the First Special Service Force (SSF)–an elite group of Canadian and American fighters every bit as crucial to the victory over National Socialist (Nazi) Germany. The Canadians were…
Sunken Bomber
Commentary My friend struggled into his wetsuit. It was a warm, sunny Mediterranean day. I was driving a small motorboat across the bay from the biology research station to Calvi. “I cannot believe people do this for pleasure,” Daniel grumbled. Sweat was dripping down his forehead. His beard was wet and he wore a grumpy…
Lt. Sedgeley and the Sunken B-17 Bomber
Commentary My friend struggled into his wetsuit. It was a warm, sunny Mediterranean day. I was driving a small motorboat across the bay from the biology research station to Calvi. “I cannot believe people do this for pleasure,” Daniel grumbled. Sweat was dripping down his forehead. His beard was wet and he wore a grumpy…
Nazi Hunter: ‘We Want to Bring Them to Justice’
Over fruitcake and schnapps, a man who identified himself as Antanas Kenstavicius hosted doctoral student Salvatore Romano at his home in Hope, B.C., in 1992 and regaled Romano with the highlight story of his Nazi past. Kenstavicius—who served as a police chief in Nazi-occupied Lithuania during World War II—along with accomplices allegedly murdered some 5,000…
Life Expectancy in US Drops by 1 Year Amid Pandemic, Largest Decrease Since World War II
Life expectancy in the United States dropped by a full year from 2019 to 2020, according to new estimates released this week. The expectancy at birth for the total population was 77.8 years in the first half of 2020, a decline from 78.8 in 2019, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers….
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