Busy, Healthy Mama: American pride

In honor of Memorial Day, I wanted to post about two very special veterans with whom I had the pleasure of visiting their World War II haunts last summer. Harry Mansfield, of Greenville, SC and Leslie Dail, of Magnolia, NC, have been friends since their time together in the army, and they proudly and bravely fought for our country from North Africa to Ardennes, only missing out on getting to Berlin. During our 10 day tour, these men regaled us (after our emphatic prodding!) with their tales of Generals George Patton and Omar Bradley, of falling asleep and waking up with inches of snow on top of them, of narrowly escaping death on several occasions, and of grieving for close friends who weren't so lucky. As Mr. Mansfield says, "We aren't heroes. We left them over there." Well, sirs, we all beg to differ.

Both Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Dail entered the D-Day invasion on Utah Beach, and we had the honor of joining them on their first return, 60 years later. Below are excerpts from my Dad's travel journal of our tour group's experience remembering World War II with two veterans:

Assigned to the Ninth Infantry Division, 34th Artillery, Harry and Les had already fought their way across North Africa. They were involved in every campaign from Algeria to Morroco. "We even pulled guard duty for President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill when they came to Casablanca," Harry mused. "We never saw them, but we knew that they were there." From North Africa, the Ninth ID would join with General Patton and the 3rd Army in the Operation to conquer Sicily. After that, it was off to England to prepare for the coming invasion of Europe. "We had no idea what was coming ," said Les. "But after a while we kind of figured out that we were going to invade at some point."

As we arrived at Utah beach, Harry and Les became quiet, occasionally pointing out landmarks or remembering something that happened here, old memories prodded back from deep within them. Sometimes their voices would crack and with a pause, they would close their eyes and grit their teeth until the overwhelming emotion passed. Once Harry just stopped mid-sentence and for a long time said nothing. Perhaps the visions of those scenes from the past became too painful, these memories which had been suppressed for decades only now coming back to life.

Suddenly Les stopped and said "This is where I came through from the beach. I remember this area and also the cottage and bunker. I was in a jeep waiting in line to get off of the beach. I was pretty nervous sitting out in the open like this. I just wanted to get the hell off of the beach befre some German sniper took a shot at me." Then he laughed.

Someone asked Les and Harry when they felt like the Allies would win the war-- no doubts in their mind. "As soon as we landed and headed inland and began to drive the Germans back," Harry answered. Les added, "When we saw all of our planes and equipment along with nearly a milllion men in this one operation, we knew that we were going to win. It was just a matter of how long it would take."

The highlight of the day for me was a visit to the Roosevelt Cafe, a beach cottage-turned restaurant named in honor of one of FDR's sons killed in the invasion. Plodding in from the windy beaches and hungry from our day of touring, we met an unexpected surprise in the Cafe. The Roosevelt Cafe's bar was imprinted with "9th Infantry Division, Utah Beach" and was covered in signatures. After telling the proprietors that we had two veterans in our company, he immediately removed his cap, shook Mr. Mansfield's and Mr. Dail's hand, and offered a heart-felt "Thank You" in English. Then, various customers, mostly French, stood and applauded the veterans, offering "Thank You's," removing their hats, and shaking their hands. Our whole tour group was overwhelmed with emotion. These men, aged 87 and 89, had earlier told us that upon returning from war, no one asked about their experience. They came home, got married, had kids, and worked hard. Now, 60 years later, they caught a glimpse of not only our nation's gratitude but also that of the French. What an honor to witness this emotional outpouring of thanks!

Cheers to Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Dail, and to all veterans and present military members. Thank you for your sacrifice and for that of your family and friends! Happy Memorial Day!