David C. Wold: WE Will Never forget

 

Screenshot (public Domain)

Submitted by David C. Wold, Greenwich Resident and Veteran:

I attended the Town of Greenwich Town Hall event (Municipal budget over 450,000,000) based on an email received 48 hours before from the First Selectman (understand it also went to 4 other Veterans) who said he had been planning the event since ‘last week’ and was now ready to ‘announce it’ must say I was disappointed about the short notice and nothing found in Newspapers or Town Hall website.

Attending I No flags for the event (unless you count the Pride flag for June each year as a D-Day flag), actual speaker, no minister, no wreath, etc…  Yes, no wreath, it could not be caused by ‘budget cuts’ as this happen just a week after FS  had cut the Wreath budget for Memorial Day in half by eliminating locations like Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam  , less than 2 years after agreeing the locations and the amount. “WE shall never forget” I have heard the First Selectman year after year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day and have to wonder why we have monuments in town and even planning to install more.

I understand that on D-Day it was the biggest number Killed, Wounded for Life,  of then and still remains our Allied Forces in one day – not to speak about the largest losses by American Forces - but no flowers, no wreaths was ever provided by Town of Greenwich.

I understand taxpaying population in Greenwich is growing and growing with members of our ‘Allied Forces’ from back in 1944 and today via their membership and contribution in NATO, so if we are ‘all inclusive’ we should be better than ‘forgetting’ Europe’s Greatest Generation and now also American’s Greatest Generation loss in one day.

5 years since - 75^th Anniversary where all above was provided by Town Hall. A day all Politicians said ‘we shall always honor and we shall never forget”

I Understand Not one Politician stepped forward at Board of Selectmen meetings , BET meetings or afraid repeated at RTM meetings and said ‘we shall always honor those who served, we shall never forget’ and if the First Selectman has, but unwilling to release, funds for flowers or wreaths – we will.

Just one of the hundreds of events done with dignity and respect from European side towards American contribution was:

Credit: Maj. John Helmers | Date Taken: 06/08/2024

DORCHESTER, England – The United States flag was raised by U.S. Army Soldiers serving in the 1st Infantry Division for the first time in 80 years above the Military Keep in Dorchester, England, on June 6, 2024. As thousands of American Soldiers gathered in Normandy, France, for the 80th commemoration of the landings on D-Day, 13 Soldiers from the 1st Inf. Div. returned to Dorchester Keep, the old Depot Barracks for the Dorset Regiment. These Soldiers were the only contingent of American forces invited to participate in commemoration ceremonies as part of the D-Day 80 commemoration.

Big Red One Returns to Great Britain

 FYI :

Creation of the 1st Infantry Division

The 1st Infantry Division was founded in June 1917. It is the first US infantry division to be created to fight German forces during the First World War. It is made up of 4 regiments of infantry, 3 regiments of artillery as well as a set of smaller units. In total, this division has nearly 28,000 men. It performed its baptism of fire on November 3, 1917.

On the front in Picardy, north of Paris, the 1st Infantry Division attacks on 28 May 1918 the German trenches as part of the battle of Cantigny. For several days, the fighting is raging and the losses are terrifying: nearly a thousand American soldiers are put out of action, and the victory – the first for the Americans in Europe – comes back to them.

North Africa

When the 1st American Infantry Division was gathered on May 15, 1942, it had nearly 15,000 soldiers to its credit. Its first battle of the Second World War took place in Operation Torch on November 8, 1942. Allied forces organized for the first time a large-scale landing near the town of Oran, Algeria.

The 1st Infantry Division, nicknamed “Big Red One” in connection with the Division Badge, fights in Tunisia and participates in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943.

D-Day

The “Big Red One” is called in England where it is to prepare Operation Overlord. Indeed, the 1st Infantry is in charge of the assault on Omaha Beach .with the 29th division of infantry.

On June 6, 1944, under the command of Major General C. Ralph Huebner, the 16th regiment of infantry lands at 6:30 in Normandy in front of the locality of Colleville-sur-Mer. But the German resistance is extremely strong and the Americans are on the brink of disaster. The losses are huge, 95 per cent of the officers were killed and no one has landed where he should be.

But the veterans of North Africa do not demotivate and force the Atlantic Wall, guarded by the 352nd German infantry division. Colonel George A. Taylor, commanding the 16th Infantry Regiment, standing on the beach, yelled at his men a phrase that went into the story: “There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here.“