6/5/2019

My dear Friend and president, DJT,

            Thanks for reading FDR's D Day prayer at the event in Portsmouth today. Did you notice that FDR tempered his comments by acknowledging that the surprise attack just might not work? It could go wrong in so many ways. The weather might have ruined things. Communications could get screwed up. The plan might have been faulty. The Germans might have learned about it and been on the alert. But somehow it was a success.

            I have just been reading the chapters in my uncle's book about the 13,100 paratroopers who jumped out of airplanes in the middle of the night and had to figure out where they were when they landed. It was hard for them to find the other folks in their battalion so they ended up wandering around and hoped that others they encountered were on their side. Meanwhile they did their best to sabotage the Germans' infrastructure by cutting phone lines and such. They had to be stealthy so the Germans wouldn't notice.  That must have been harrowing. I'm sure that every man who survived that mission had an interesting story to tell. My uncle collected as many as he could but so many have been lost. 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9226784/d-day-veteran-97-parachutes-normandy/

            I hope you get a chance to spend some time with the vets that are there. 3 of them are in France and appeared on Good Morning America today. They all expressed hope that we could avoid repeating history so no one would have to go through what they experienced. Tom Rice re-enacted his jump today into a field near Carentan. He's 97-years old. I can't imagine jumping out of an airplane ever, let alone when I'm that age. He says he is bothered by what he had to do in the war and that all GIs suffer from the same blame and shame. It makes me sad to think that he's had to live a lifetime with that weight.

         I hope the lesson of the next couple of days is WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER. 

         God Bless,

         RCA

PS - I wonder how Angela Merkel feels at these events. It must be SO awkward. Don't be surprised if she decides not to buy any more weapons from us.