A story of an improbable coincidence that gave me the story of my father's day after landing in the second wave of the Normandy invasion -- a subject he never discussed when he was alive.
This is a very powerful and moving story Geoffrey, you’ve done your father proud. As a Brit, I am thankful for what he did and the sacrifices he made , long may his story, and those like him, continue to be told. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of writing.
Dave, thanks so much for this. I so appreciate it when people read my stories and also share their reaction. I've never had a story that evolved so over the years and I finally feel it is done -- unless someone else comes forward with more photos! -- so it means a lot to me that this piece had such meaning for you. I do think that you in Great Britain show much more reverence for WWII and the sacrifices that so many made. Here in distant America, the memory is fading which is why I like to get this story out each year to remind people of what our forefathers (and mothers) went through.
Geoffrey, my father served on a destroyer escort in the Navy later in the war. The USS Fogg. Had the tail blown off.
He asked me to take him many years after to his 50th high school reunion. He had skipped his senior year and gone on to college where he was later commissioned an officer.
At the reunion he met a woman he most certainly had dated in high school. They remembered each other very fondly. She introduced him to her husband.
My father was a crotchety lawyer who had practiced for 55 years. As we continued to talk, the woman’s husband mentioned that he was among the First Wave on Normandy.
It was the only time in my life that I ever saw the kind of reverence I would call awe on my father’s face.
Beautifully written. It’s so important that we keep those stories alive, and honor their experiences. I would say I wish we could learn and never again have war, but that doesn’t seem to be the way of things.
What a rich, detailed but still mysterious telling of your father, or one aspect of his life. I enjoyed the layering of the story itself and how it evolved through various publications.
Thanks so much, Michelle. It has been a living story, one insight after another, one little mystery resolved after another. In the end, though, I wish he'd talked about it. And, I wish I'd asked him about it.
To me the lesson has been to ask. Never be afraid of asking.
Geoffrey so many stretchers on the beach in the last photo leaves me speechless.
4 years ago I learned 3 of my dad’s brothers were with the 442 when I inherited my uncle’s memorabilia. They never talked about it in a way I could understand.
One uncle was with Co K in the 442 RCT and was kia 2 weeks before war’s end. Another had bad legs and never went overseas. The memorabilia uncle? He was 22 year old medical student in 1942. He was a medic with the 442 and ended up a Colonel at the end of his career.
I have boxes and albums full of WWII photos and correspondence.
Good story about your dad. Our fathers were ordinary men who were asked to do extraordinary things, and they did it! (Imagine our current president, you know the one with the bone spurs, stepping up……..not!)
Also, I had a chance to meet Joe Foley when I was applying to med school. My father suggested that I look him up when I was visiting Case Western. He was very welcoming and even took me on grand rounds with his staff, very heady stuff.
Thanks, Jack. Your Dad met Dr. Foley when he came for his annual talks at Sharon Hospital. Everyone loved Joe’s visits, particularly Dad who spent much of the evenings behind a closed door in the library drinking untold amounts of whiskey and being slightly grumpy in the morning.
This is an amazing story, Geoff. Thank you so much for sharing your "resurrecting" your dad's experiences from history, and the tales of his contemporaries. My father-in-law was a doctor and colonel who served in the Pacific, setting up mash units. He never talked about his war experiences. I wish he were still around so I could share this with him and see what memories it might stir open.
I was able to rescue the comments from the previsous version.
CG - Crazy Gnome
Tales From the Void
6.6.25
How strange! I am walking at lepe Beach today ... 6/6 I've just taken a photo of the D-Day memorial!
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Rich Dornisch 🏳️🌈
Kornerz Newz
5.29.25
Wow, what an awesome story about your dad! You are so lucky to have gotten the chance to learn more about him and even glimpse of your start in his story. I bet it brought you closer to his memory and helped you get why he did not have talked about it.
I know lots of solders like him that never shared their story and they are left untold. Thanks for sharing his story with us!
Its a great reminder of the sacrifices they made for our freedom.
-----------------------------------
(reply) gg
Thanks very much, Rich. I appreciate your taking the time to read the story, particularly given that it seems a protocol in commenting NOT to post a link to your own story.
It has been remarkable to learn so much about my Dad's experience on that day, June 6, 1944, and to learn, too, why so many of the men (and women) didn't talk about it.
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Sidney Eley
My Lens
1.21.25
Well told story. Amazing to find those photos. I think talking about their lives was not as acceptable as it is today. WWII and the depression silenced people. It certainly did my parents.
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(reply) gg
So true. Particularly in New England where, a time ago, you did not talk about yourself.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
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Douglas Bruton
Douglas’s Substack
1.21.25
Wow! That's a story! And there's a story for every man and boy that was lost. Thanks for sharing.
-----------------------------------
(reply) gg
Thank you Douglas. It was a found story no question about it. I feel so blessed — and my extended family feels so blessed — that it came to me.
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Voge Smith
Voge’s Substack: The Delicious …
1.20.25
Geoffrey, Thank you for sharing your father's story. I am so deeply moved by every word of it. It seems our fathers were in the same places - Europe, Italy and Africa.
As a daughter of a WW 2 veteran I lived with that war every day in my home. He never would talk about. He was zipped up like most men who came home from that war....yet every Saturday he sat in front of our black and white TV watching reruns of Combat. Thanks again, love your writing.
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So appreciate your commenting, Voge. Really means a lot.
So does what you said -- the silence about what it was like and watching "Combat!"
We did not have a TV until I was 11 when one of my father's patients entered his name in a raffle for a colored TV and won! He was beaming when he delivered it to my Dad. My Dad was gracious but not pleased. He said he had to accept it since the man was one of the many who my Dad didn't charge for medical care. He knew that this was his way of paying.
But the rule was, we could only watch it when he was around. Which he never was. Except when Combat! was on.
-----------------------------------
Voge Smith
Voge’s Substack: The Delicious …
1.20.25
WOW….it seems that show gave all those men a way to process what they lived through.
It makes you wonder - how many homes had a similar scene every Saturday. That silence, that trauma is got me into the work I do now.
This is a very powerful and moving story Geoffrey, you’ve done your father proud. As a Brit, I am thankful for what he did and the sacrifices he made , long may his story, and those like him, continue to be told. Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of writing.
Dave, thanks so much for this. I so appreciate it when people read my stories and also share their reaction. I've never had a story that evolved so over the years and I finally feel it is done -- unless someone else comes forward with more photos! -- so it means a lot to me that this piece had such meaning for you. I do think that you in Great Britain show much more reverence for WWII and the sacrifices that so many made. Here in distant America, the memory is fading which is why I like to get this story out each year to remind people of what our forefathers (and mothers) went through.
Take care and thanks again.
gg
Geoffrey, my father served on a destroyer escort in the Navy later in the war. The USS Fogg. Had the tail blown off.
He asked me to take him many years after to his 50th high school reunion. He had skipped his senior year and gone on to college where he was later commissioned an officer.
At the reunion he met a woman he most certainly had dated in high school. They remembered each other very fondly. She introduced him to her husband.
My father was a crotchety lawyer who had practiced for 55 years. As we continued to talk, the woman’s husband mentioned that he was among the First Wave on Normandy.
It was the only time in my life that I ever saw the kind of reverence I would call awe on my father’s face.
thanks so much for sharing this story of your Dad. we must keep in touch with our histories. our real history.
Beautifully written. It’s so important that we keep those stories alive, and honor their experiences. I would say I wish we could learn and never again have war, but that doesn’t seem to be the way of things.
Wow. I can't believe how each time you published this someone came out of the woodwork to offer you more information. The photos are so powerful.
Aren't they? It truly has been a remarkable thing, one coincidence after another after another all built on one that made me.
What a rich, detailed but still mysterious telling of your father, or one aspect of his life. I enjoyed the layering of the story itself and how it evolved through various publications.
Thanks so much, Michelle. It has been a living story, one insight after another, one little mystery resolved after another. In the end, though, I wish he'd talked about it. And, I wish I'd asked him about it.
To me the lesson has been to ask. Never be afraid of asking.
This is so moving. What a story to tell - and about your own father. Wow... restores your faith in what it is to be human. Thank you.
I continue to adore this piece, but only this time reading it did I realize that you literally exist because of your father’s stubbornness and honor.
thank you for your loyalty. I’ve written this now four times, each with an additional gem.
I wish I could thank the Admiral.
Geoffrey so many stretchers on the beach in the last photo leaves me speechless.
4 years ago I learned 3 of my dad’s brothers were with the 442 when I inherited my uncle’s memorabilia. They never talked about it in a way I could understand.
One uncle was with Co K in the 442 RCT and was kia 2 weeks before war’s end. Another had bad legs and never went overseas. The memorabilia uncle? He was 22 year old medical student in 1942. He was a medic with the 442 and ended up a Colonel at the end of his career.
I have boxes and albums full of WWII photos and correspondence.
Thank you for sharing.
thanks so much for sharing this about your Dad and 3 of his brothers. And thanks, too, for reading and responding to my story.
be well,
gg
Hi Geoff,
Good story about your dad. Our fathers were ordinary men who were asked to do extraordinary things, and they did it! (Imagine our current president, you know the one with the bone spurs, stepping up……..not!)
Also, I had a chance to meet Joe Foley when I was applying to med school. My father suggested that I look him up when I was visiting Case Western. He was very welcoming and even took me on grand rounds with his staff, very heady stuff.
I enjoy reading your stories.
All the best,
Jack
Thanks, Jack. Your Dad met Dr. Foley when he came for his annual talks at Sharon Hospital. Everyone loved Joe’s visits, particularly Dad who spent much of the evenings behind a closed door in the library drinking untold amounts of whiskey and being slightly grumpy in the morning.
Be well.
gg
This is an amazing story, Geoff. Thank you so much for sharing your "resurrecting" your dad's experiences from history, and the tales of his contemporaries. My father-in-law was a doctor and colonel who served in the Pacific, setting up mash units. He never talked about his war experiences. I wish he were still around so I could share this with him and see what memories it might stir open.
And I appreciate, too, the restacking.
be well,
gg
thanks Robin. So nice of you to read and to comment. I'm glad the story made you think of your Dad.
I was able to rescue the comments from the previsous version.
CG - Crazy Gnome
Tales From the Void
6.6.25
How strange! I am walking at lepe Beach today ... 6/6 I've just taken a photo of the D-Day memorial!
---------------------------------
Rich Dornisch 🏳️🌈
Kornerz Newz
5.29.25
Wow, what an awesome story about your dad! You are so lucky to have gotten the chance to learn more about him and even glimpse of your start in his story. I bet it brought you closer to his memory and helped you get why he did not have talked about it.
I know lots of solders like him that never shared their story and they are left untold. Thanks for sharing his story with us!
Its a great reminder of the sacrifices they made for our freedom.
-----------------------------------
(reply) gg
Thanks very much, Rich. I appreciate your taking the time to read the story, particularly given that it seems a protocol in commenting NOT to post a link to your own story.
It has been remarkable to learn so much about my Dad's experience on that day, June 6, 1944, and to learn, too, why so many of the men (and women) didn't talk about it.
-----------------------------------
Sidney Eley
My Lens
1.21.25
Well told story. Amazing to find those photos. I think talking about their lives was not as acceptable as it is today. WWII and the depression silenced people. It certainly did my parents.
-----------------------------------
(reply) gg
So true. Particularly in New England where, a time ago, you did not talk about yourself.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
-----------------------------------
Douglas Bruton
Douglas’s Substack
1.21.25
Wow! That's a story! And there's a story for every man and boy that was lost. Thanks for sharing.
-----------------------------------
(reply) gg
Thank you Douglas. It was a found story no question about it. I feel so blessed — and my extended family feels so blessed — that it came to me.
-----------------------------------
Voge Smith
Voge’s Substack: The Delicious …
1.20.25
Geoffrey, Thank you for sharing your father's story. I am so deeply moved by every word of it. It seems our fathers were in the same places - Europe, Italy and Africa.
As a daughter of a WW 2 veteran I lived with that war every day in my home. He never would talk about. He was zipped up like most men who came home from that war....yet every Saturday he sat in front of our black and white TV watching reruns of Combat. Thanks again, love your writing.
-----------------------------------
So appreciate your commenting, Voge. Really means a lot.
So does what you said -- the silence about what it was like and watching "Combat!"
We did not have a TV until I was 11 when one of my father's patients entered his name in a raffle for a colored TV and won! He was beaming when he delivered it to my Dad. My Dad was gracious but not pleased. He said he had to accept it since the man was one of the many who my Dad didn't charge for medical care. He knew that this was his way of paying.
But the rule was, we could only watch it when he was around. Which he never was. Except when Combat! was on.
-----------------------------------
Voge Smith
Voge’s Substack: The Delicious …
1.20.25
WOW….it seems that show gave all those men a way to process what they lived through.
It makes you wonder - how many homes had a similar scene every Saturday. That silence, that trauma is got me into the work I do now.