{"id":56122,"date":"2024-06-05T21:03:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T19:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=56122"},"modified":"2026-06-05T00:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:24:51","slug":"the-moving-return-of-world-war-ii-veterans-to-normandy-80-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/06\/05\/the-moving-return-of-world-war-ii-veterans-to-normandy-80-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"The moving return of World War II veterans to Normandy 80 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Las celebraciones del 80\u00ba aniversario del Desembarco de Normand\u00eda tienen unos invitados de honor: los veteranos.<\/p>\n

World War II military vehicles and aircraft in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day<\/a><\/rel>
\nMore than a beach: the division of the Spanish soldier who fell on D-Day returns to Normandy<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

These men fought in World War II, 80 years ago.<\/strong> Most of them are already over 100 years old, so almost all of them have traveled to Normandy in wheelchairs aboard a Delta Air Lines plane, coming from the United States<\/strong> and which arrived on June 3 at Deauville Airport, in the northeast of Normandy.<\/p>\n

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On this trip, the veterans have been accompanied by members of the Best Defense Foundation<\/a>. In Normandy they have been received by US soldiers who have traveled to France to participate in these events.<\/p>\n

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In the following photo we see Richard Stewart<\/strong>, veteran of the 459th Signal Construction Battalion of the US Army Air Forces, greeting soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division.<\/p>\n

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Among the veterans there are not only men. Here we see a very famous woman who is 98 years old today: Anna Mae Krier, known as \"Rosie the Riveter\"<\/strong>, protagonist of the famous 1942 poster<\/a> that encouraged many women to go to work in factories to build weapons. Anna worked building B-17 and B-29 bombers. Here we see her with a French Army female soldier.<\/p>\n

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Below these lines, Calvin Shiner<\/strong> (left, 101 years old), participated in the Operation Dragon landing in the south of France in World War II, as part of an engineering unit. Arlester Brown<\/strong> (right, 100 years old) was a quartermaster engineer in Normandy, elsewhere in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. He was hit by shrapnel in January 1945.<\/p>\n

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Below, Dennis Boldt, a veteran who landed on Utah Beach in Normandy.<\/strong> On this trip he was able to visit the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach for the first time.<\/p>\n

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John Wardell (98 years old) was part of the 2nd Ranger Battalion of the US Army<\/strong>. He landed on Omaha Beach on June 18, 1944. He fought in Normandy, Brittany, Belgium and Germany.<\/p>\n

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US General Darryl Williams<\/strong>, Commanding General of the US Army in Europe and Africa, greets World War II veteran Paul Priest<\/strong> (98 years old), belonged to the 9th Armored Division and landed in France in December 1944 to replace the crew of a Sherman tank. On March 7, 1945 he was in the Pershing tank that led the American column toward the Remagen Bridge. His unit reached Czechoslovakia.<\/p>\n

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Veterans giving the military salute when listening to the US National Anthem in Pointe du Hoc, Normandy.<\/strong> Some, despite their advanced age, wanted to stand up and listen solemnly to the anthem as when they were soldiers. Admirable people.<\/p>\n

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The following photos have been published by the US Embassy in France. In them we see the veterans at the Omaha Beach American Cemetery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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This visit has been the most emotional. In it, the veterans have reunited with friends who lost their lives in Europe<\/strong>. Some heroes to whom millions of Europeans owe the fact of not living under the yoke of Nazism.<\/p>\n

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I dedicate this article to these veterans and to all the soldiers who fought with honor in Normandy<\/strong>, especially to those who lost their lives in those battles.<\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Photos: U.S. Army<\/a> \/ French Embassy in the U.S.<\/a> \/ Honor Rosie<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las celebraciones del 80\u00ba aniversario del Desembarco de Normand\u00eda tienen unos invitados de honor: los veteranos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11549],"tags":[16745,22063,10575,12736,12733,318,10389],"class_list":["post-56122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-history","tag-battle-of-normandy","tag-best-defense-foundation","tag-france","tag-normandy","tag-normandy-landings","tag-us-army","tag-world-war-ii"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-13 06:23:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}