Posted 11:09 by Tycho

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the execution of Operation Overlord--the invasion of Normandy. Over 4,700 ships, 100,000 men, and 2,000 aircraft participated. The first to fight and die were the paratroopers, whom achieved all their objectives, despite taking heavy casualties (up to 40-50%). Next, the infantry hit the beaches in the morning, shortly after an artillery and bomb bombardment. The landings were a complete success, except for at "Bloody Omaha", where over 2,500 Americans were killed. If the bodies were spread out over the entire beach, there would be one dead GI every six feet in all directions.

May we remember the sacrifices they made forevermore, and may they rest in peace.

I had this long thing written up, but it got to be about 13 pages long, and I was pretty sure no one would bother reading the entire thing, so I just posted that.

This weekend was pretty good. Friday night, went to see Harry Potter with Hav (yes, we are both still men!), and actually enjoyed it. We were too bloody cheap to pay $2.50 to come back one stop from Quincy Center, and so we walked and talked.

Saturday morning, I was up and at 'em, and put a couple last second touches on my pack. We made our way to the pier and waited around for a while...then someone finally tells us that we were at the wrong pier, and we have to go all the way around to Quincy Bay and launch from there. About an hour later, we are on Grape Island, and we have camp set up. Chris, Nick, Marky, and I go hiking along the trails, and Marky decides to split off. We continued to walk over the entire island, go climbing in the trees, and take TWO naps.

Once we got back at camp, it was about time to cook our steaks...and so we did, and they kicked ass. Afterwards, I was introduced to a knife game that is generally banned in the Boy Scouts called "Mumble the Peg"...aptly named because the loser has to pick a small peg out of the dirt with his teeth. Nick...*sigh*...you were too suggestible...how many times was it? Six? Seven?

Then we took some rope that I brought, a hook Marky brought, and some left over steak and went fishing (which failed), and crabbing (which also failed...for now...those things were WICKED BIG I tell you!).

Marky learned a valuable lesson--not to use bug spray containers as flamethrowers. And, like an ass, killed moths and put them into my drink. Good going there.

Reveille was at 0730, and we cooked breakfast, broke camp, and got back to the mainland. I was back by about 11:00, and watched part of the D-Day Tribute being held at Arromanches. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand watching it any longer because the damned broadcaster wouldn't SHUT THE HELL UP and let us watch and listen to it.