Memories & Thoughts on the 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today is our Kfab Camp plus Careradiothon with open Door Mission. Now opendoor
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mission dot org, or go tokfab dot com. There's a link there
as well. Let's go to thephones as we start the four o'clock hour,
and we got Joe on the line. Joe, welcome to the show.
What's on your mind? Hey,you said something earlier in your show
that inspired me to call. Okay, you you mentioned you said who is
this guy? When you were talkingabout Hunter Biden. Yeah, and in

(01:49):
the back of my mind, allI wanted to say is the l apple
doesn't far, fall fall far,And so you know, I think Hunter
Biden's a cree, and I takehis dad's a creek. And so keep
in mind that Jill Biden was alsothe babysitter for the family. You said,

(02:09):
Jill or the nanny. It's likeHailey Biden was the sister in law
and so forth. So so whywouldn't he date his sister in law?
His dad married the babysitter. That'sa little less weird though, Joe,
isn't it. I mean, Idon't know. I mean, I mean,

(02:30):
my brother dies and then I goget with his widow. That's weird
to me. That that that islike a level above. But that whole
family is that whole family is creepy. Yeah, I mean I can't I
can't disagree. I mean the videoof him as a vice president in the
White House when he was allegedly,you know, still like had his wits
about him. I mean he's cuddlingup to and stroking and being all weird

(02:53):
with any weird, strange person whowas coming into the White House for anything.
I mean, he's just a weirdguy. Sure, that's right.
Yeah, Well, Joseph Creep andHunters of Creep. So he learned from
the best yeah, that's weird.All right, Well, Joe, it's
a good point. I appreciate youcalling in. Thanks for listening to us
today. Thank you. Yeah,absolutely, I mean it's sorry, hard

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hard to disagree with that. Fourto ten. I want to I want
to get a little more serious ifI can. You know, we're having
fun today, but today is Junethe sixth. June sixth, nineteen forty
four was D Day. D Dayis by far and away one of the
most impactful military operations in the historyof the world. The amount of manpower

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and cooperation that it took from theAllies, specifically from the United States and
and you can throw Canada in therea little bit as well, along with
Great Britain or England. Britain,I think is probably the way that we
should put that and what they wereable to do to help eventually break down

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the infrastructure of Germany held France,which turned the tide of World War Two
at the cost of many, manylives, thousands of lives. But these
were men that came ashore on theFive Beaches in Normandy, the guys who
were going to be there, andthey knew what their job was. You
were going to go into heavy artillery, snipers. You're going to be running

(04:21):
into this defense mechanism that has beenoutlined by the Nazis. You are likely
to perish. Yet in the samebreath you are serving your country or serving
the world to be able to dothat. They don't make them like that
anymore, ladies and gentlemen, Andthat's one of the reasons why they don't
make them like that anymore, becauseof what those people did, those men

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and what they did when they gotto Normandy that day eighty years ago.
Now, Joe Biden was among acouple dozen people that were world leaders in
France at Normandy today talking about thishere to politicize it, I'm not.
What I'm here to do is I'mhere to thank anyone who has served our

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nation, anyone who has relatives specificallythat were involved during World War Two.
That was a big team effort fromthe Allies to defeat the levels of evil
that were collaborating for the Axis Powersin the nineteen thirties and into the nineteen
forties. And the thing that turnedthe tide, it really did, was

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d Day. Now, if you'veseen the movie Saving Private Ryan, there's
something about that movie that by allaccounts. Steven Spielberg wanted to get it
right, and it's an incredible cast, it's well done movie, but it
was the way that they depicted Imean, the first twenty plus minutes of
the movie is basically you're getting droppedonto the beach on D Day. And

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for anybody who hasn't seen the film, I highly recommend it if you can
handle it, because it is warand it's depicted in a way that I
mean, like mentally, like putsyou in a place where, wow,
that actually happened. That isn't justa movie. That was what they really
did. They ran onto the beachknowing they were likely going to meet their

(06:13):
doom, their fate, and theywere hoping to take down some of the
enemy with them so the generations thatfollowed wouldn't have to make that same sacrifice.
It was truly a moment of desperationin some ways, like hey,
our best shot is to do this, But it was also a moment of
brilliant battlefield strategy. We're never goingto fight wars like that ever again.

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You know, we have the abilityand capability for very precise strikes from far
distances away with missiles and drones,and unmanned aircrafts. You're going to have
the ability to do that and notput yourself in a position to be aimed
back on if you will. Theseare not the hand to hand you bayonet

(07:01):
to bayonets skirmishes that you read aboutin the Civil War, right, the
close fighting that would take place ina variety of different locations. We'll never
going to fight wars like that everagain. And that's what we have to
remember so vividly, and we haveto tell our kids, We have to
tell our grandkids, our nieces,our nephews. The school system, I

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mean, for all of the thingsthat we are unsure about exactly what the
education system is giving to our kids. One thing about history that we do
know they're learning about. There area few dates. There are a few
events obviously the Revolution, obviously theCivil War. You hear about remember the
Alamo because of how legendary that momentis in text and independence, and how

(07:45):
that moment created a much different lookingAmerica by the end of the nineteen thirties
and forties. Another thing that yousee in the history books, obviously is
the run up to the Civil Warand then World War One and World War
Two. But D Day is,along with Pearl Harbor, probably the most
pivotal thing in the history of WorldWar Two to talk about to young children.

(08:07):
And by young children, I meanlike they need to be old enough
to understand the gravity that we're talkingabout. Right, I'm talking like,
you know, you probably learned aboutWorld War Two for the first time when
you're like ten or eleven. Idon't want to put any words in the
mouths of any educators out there.It's been a while since I've been in
school. But when you learn aboutthat, it's you know, sometimes it
just kind of hits and you justyou don't quite understand what we're talking about

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here, with the thousands of menputting it, like the visual aspect of
that, with photographs, with videofrom the time, with the footage that
exists, and then the re enactmentsof that in a movie, a film
that's so well done like Saving PrivateRyan, I think, and add some
really important context to what D Daywas and why it was so important.

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We cannot let the generations that arecurrently here and the generations that are going
to follow take those moments lightly.And this is why I am so protective
of the hyperbole that we hear everybodytalks about, well, this person's the
best president, this person's the worstpresident. These are the worst times our
economy has had in forever. Theseare the worst times. I hate that.

(09:13):
I hate talking about that because itdoes so much to undermine the incredible
history that we have been through.Just to flippantly say things like that bothers
me because I want to properly contextualizewhat the history of this country and what
the history of this world is like. And I guess the main point of
that is we are never going tobe in a position like we were in

(09:37):
World War Two, hopefully ever againas a country where we were sending our
people overseas. We never know,We didn't know if we were ever going
to see them again. We didn'thave the technology to do anything other than
write them letters and hope they wroteback in a few weeks. It was
just an incredible time to honestly tryto maintain a family. I mean,

(10:00):
the weight of the world on thepeople that were back home as well,
just trying to create enough for thewar effort, the resources for the war
effort. It made a big difference. And I just don't like how we're
talking. Oh We've never had abigger issue than we have right now.
Yeah, and people talk about defvisivenessand all this stuff. I just feel
like that spits on the face ofthe history of this country, and especially

(10:22):
a day like D Day where weneed to remember it today. All them
incredible efforts and the courage and thebravery of those who lost their lives by
doing what essentially was for many ofthem a suicide mission when they landed on
those beaches, knowing what was goingto be coming at them, and knowing
that all they needed to do andwhat their job was was to try to

(10:43):
take some people with them. Imean, it's really it gives you chills
when you think about it. It'sdefinitely something on my bucket list. I
got to go over there. Igot to see the cemetery. I have
to, like, I would loveto I hear the stories of the French
people talking and thanking Americans for theirfreedom to this day. I mean,
if that doesn't give you chills andreally make you think, you know what,
we are lucky to be Americans.Sure we have our problems, but

(11:07):
man, we are not thinking inthe right context. And D Day is
I think a really important way thatwe can reconfigure ourselves and recalibrate. It's
four to twenty. We'll come backto have a short segment if you want
to call in. You have thoughtson D Day, You have people that
are on your mind about the serviceand the way that they were at deep

(11:28):
that they were either involved in DDay, they were involved in World War
Two and what that means to you. And you can also let us know
if you've ever been over to Normandyor you've been able to go over and
look at the beaches or any ofthe things that go on over there,
especially on June the sixth, we'dlove to hear from you as well.
At four oh two, five five, eight, eleven ten, It's News
Radio eleven ten KFABA, Candice,where are we at on this now today?
Hey, this is so exciting.We have met the retire Smart Match,

(11:52):
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their team, but to our KFABlisteners for coming through to us. You
know, we started this morning atsix. We're in the last two hours
of the day and people are stillmaking a difference, a meaningful impact in
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Thank you, because really, ourkids experiencing homelessness are our neediest neighbors that

(12:15):
are just truly victims of the situationthat they're in in their family. And
so right, so now that theretire smart match is done, we do
have another match that's lining up.Yeah, I'm so grateful to Dick Anne
and his family, and he wasthe former owner of Paneltech, so he
truly is an artist in himself.He can make anything at a nothing and

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have a warehouse that has seven hundredskids of goods because of his vision.
And this probably isn't very sexy,but a quasa hut that actually is a
freezer nice. So feeding the hungryis huge for us. And so Dick
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Open Door Mission, and part ofhis passion is children and experiencing homelessness.

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And so grateful for his encouragement,not just to myself as a leader,
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well as stability for the family.And now Dick Nan is going to match
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Again that's eight nine eight four sixseven three, or you can go to
opendoor mission dot org, opendoor missiondot org, or we have a link

(13:48):
on our website caifib dot com.Yeah, perfect, Candice, thanks for
topping to you. Okay, sodo that call in and we're going to
talk more about D Day, storiesabout D Day. We're going to talk
about warfare and how it's different nowbecause of the sacrifices that were made on
that faithful day eighty years ago today. And well also we'd love to talk
to you if you've been there,if you've actually gone to Normandy for a

(14:09):
visit, you can go ahead andcall us four h two five five eight
eleven ten. We'll take your calls. Next on news Radio eleven ten KFAB
we're talking about D Day. DDay is today, that is eighty years
to the day of that very fatefulday, one of the most important military
operations in the history of planet Earth. And we're talking about how life is
different now and and our thoughts aboutD Day itself and about that place.

(14:35):
You can call us at four htwo five five, eight eleven ten and
Mike's on the line. Mike,thanks for holding and being a part of
our show today. And what doyou want to talk about. I'm got
to pick up your left off talkingabout Stephen private Ryan and when they finally
scaled the cliffer and they got youup and over and during the movie is
pretty you know, certainly realistic.How they did that portrayed that, and

(14:56):
I think what the biggest difference waswas is when they started coming over the
and started taking over and the Germanswere coming out of towboxes in that movie
in the first twenty minutes, youknow, one minute, the Germans are
mowing them down, cutting them down. Then they come out of toebox and
a lot of these scenes there theywere shooting the Germans as they came out
their hands up. The difference yousee between that now is back then you

(15:16):
did not have the entrenched media tryingto find a scoop and trying to find
a story. They're actually they're almostkind of like reporting the news. Now,
that same action, you find soldiersin the military being judged by people
sitting in comfort offices and TV stationsand in DC. These guys are being
held liable and you know, beingthrown in jail for those same actions.
And you saw a big shift overthe years, and my dad commented about

(15:39):
he was in the military and commentabout it. You know, the media
started getting more in trans in Korea. We saw the war were brought into
our living rooms and kitchen tables duringVietnam, and they just escalated to the
point where you might not remember this, but when we were in Goal War
One, the fields were coming upon a beach and there's all the cameras
set up recording coming out of thewater, and it's sad that these guys

(16:04):
put their lives on the line,they're being shot at, there being everything
being thrown at them. But yetyou have people that aren't there, aren't
experiencing that judging their actions and afteryou see, you know, how many
of your friends get shot down andthen this guy Alsen drops his weapon puts
his hands up, So I'm sorry. And in Saving River Rioting, as
you probably saw the movie, itsounds like, you know, you saw
what happened today standards, those sameguys would be sitting down eleven with and

(16:26):
a lot of other places being upon charges. We saw that happening with
many of our war fighters, evenin this last war. Yeah, and
now, Mike, that's part aboutit. Yeah, that's definitely something we've
become more aware and probably more sensitiveto it because the media has changed,
and that's probably one of the reasonswhy we haven't had as many conflicts as

(16:49):
we were having pre World War Two. And that's such an underrated part of
this entire thing, because people whohave no idea what it takes to be
in a war are trying to talkabout war, and it just it doesn't
compute. It doesn't make a lotof sense, especially considering that the people
who are in the war, especiallyif you're talking like Israel, you're talking

(17:10):
about you know, Ukraine, youtalk about these these people, I mean,
they're living a completely different life rightnow than we'll ever experience in our
entire lives, and I feel likethat should exonerate us from even trying to
strategize for those people. That's justmy perspective. I will never judge any
man's actions. My son was inAfghanistan at Camp Dwyer in the Helme And
Province, and before he left,I basically told him, I said,

(17:33):
you do whatever you have to doto get home. Yeah, I don't
care what you do. You getback home. And he's you know,
he's home. Well, he's stillin the military. But you know that
was just a difference, is like, I don't care what you got to
do, son. You know,I'll never judge your actions because I'm not
there. Well, there was anold saying all is fair in love and
war, and that was that we'veforgotten about that because people want to act

(17:56):
like it's their business when it reallyisn't. Like I really you calling in
and thank you, thank your sonfor his service. Today. Uh,
let's go to John, John,appreciate you for calling in today. What
do you think about what's going ontoday? I happen to be well acquainted
with a World War two veteran.Uh, he's getting ready to celebrate his
one hundred and second birthday. Wow. He landed in North Africa with the

(18:21):
Big Red One. He landed inSicily with the Big Red One, and
he was second wave Omaha Beach onD Day. And his story is amazing
and compelling. He's such a gentleman. He's still pretty lucid. You know.
His story has been recorded, andhe's just he's just a great gentleman.

(18:45):
My granddaughter happens to be over atNormandy. She was there yesterday at
overlooking the beach and at the cemetery. Uh, and I bought her a
book so she can read up onit and we'll discuss it she gets back.
And last but not least, Ibelong to an all volunteer organization called

(19:07):
the Honor Remember Nebraska Chapter. Andon Sunday, we're going to present a
flag to World War two fallen heroa, PFC Robert J. Day.
We're going to present an honor memberflag gar his family and the family reading
and so that'll be quite the honor, both for us and for the family,
just to symbolize the fact that weshould never forget the sacrifices these guys

(19:30):
have men and women both that havegiven to our country. We always have
to respect it, we have tohonor it. Then we can never forget.
And to the other previous callers point, I contend that if we'd have
had the same rules of engagement inWorld War two that we have now,
we would have lost the war.Oh yeah, it's terrible. Yeah,

(19:51):
evil people. They don't care aboutrules. They'll never they'll never think about
rules. John, that is sucha powerful story. Thank you so much
for sharing, and please keep usupdated on the latest of what you and
your granddaughter are working on there,because I'm sure that's going to be quite
an eye opening thing we will do. Thank you. Thanks John. Let's
go to Linda on our phone lineof four h two five five eight eleven

(20:12):
ten. Hello, Linda, whatare you thinking about? Hi? I
just wanted to call in today becauseI was lucky enough to go to Normandy
this March. Oh well, mydaughter, Yeah, my daughter, my
son in law, his mom,and my little granddaughter. And it was
the most amazing trip I've ever madeever. So what were the highlights that

(20:37):
you would see that you think thatwe like For somebody like me, I
have got Europe yet we're going toSpain for the first time in September.
But I definitely want to try toget to a bunch of different spots,
and Normandy is definitely on the shortlist of places I really would like to
visit. What are some things thatyou could tell me about planning that trip.
It's got to be. The onething that we did is we hired

(20:59):
a guide and he told us beforewe even went to be sure to watch
the movie The Longest Day with JohnWayne. It was a black and white
movie, and so we did thatjust kind of do some of our homework.
We read a lot, but hetook us through all of the towns.
We stayed in Bayou, which wasnot far from Omaha Beach, and

(21:19):
he took us to San Lo,to Santa Gliice. He took us to
all of these places for two differentdays. He picked us up in his
car and did this. And we'dnever have ever had a guide ever,
And this was the best thing thatwe did because he took us down all
the back roads. I mean,we saw all of the artillery, the

(21:41):
bunkers, the holes that are stillthere after eighty years from our shelling from
the ocean. The stories behind itwere just amazing. The buildings. They
don't ever tear any buildings down,They just rebuild them and you know,
repair them's. But when I stoodon those beaches and you you think about

(22:04):
what the Allies did. You know, we did Omaha and Utah Beach and
the Britons did the other ones.The planning that it took is just is
just unbelievable when you look at thestrategic planning that they did to make this
happen, and it caught the Germanstotally off guard, totally off guard.

(22:27):
They never thought that they would everland there in the first place, especially
when they did, and it wasjust a fluke with the with the weather
that they said, Okay, Junesixth, that's going to be D Day.
It's because otherwise it would have floodedthem. It would have they would
have never gotten their ships close enough. It just was if anybody ever gets

(22:48):
the chance to go there, doit and hire Edward as their guide,
because that guy was just amazing.Linda, I really appreciate you sharing your
experience with us today. Definitely goingto put that on the list, and
thank you so much for sharing today. You are very welcome, Thank you
very much. It is for fortysix. We'll take more calls momentarily.
Did want to just shout out onemore time before we hit the brake our

(23:10):
Kfab camp plus care radiothon. Youcan give just forty nine dollars that will
help sponsor a child as they gothrough camp. They're doing Dinosaur a week.
This week, they've played putt puttgolf. They have the ability to
have some fun. Give them achance to escape with the situations that are
generally not great for them or theirfamilies. That forty nine dollars goes a

(23:32):
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hour is our friend Dick Ganen.Dick Ganan, an artist and former owner
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(23:56):
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and please please give. We'd loveto shout you out here on the radio.
More of your thoughts on D Daynext on news Radio eleven ten KFAB.
We've opened the phone lines for yourthoughts at four oh two, five

(24:18):
five eight eleven ten. Ed ison the line. Ed, thanks for
holding and being part of our showtoday. What's on your mind? It's
my pleasure. I hope my cellphone connection is pretty good because I've got
a great story to tell. Okay. I work at the Omaha National Cemetery.
A lot of veterans don't know thatwe're even open, and in that
we bury veterans, and we arelocated on one hundred and forty fourth in

(24:42):
Shram Road. But we have aD Day survivor who is in the first
wave on Utah Beach and his namewas John Webster, and I'm I'm gonna
terri terrible message this last name upla Landau. He was with the sixty

(25:03):
fifth Field Artillery Regiment called the Thunderbolts, and they were a mechanized artillery unit
that had a lengthy reputation of beingvery awesome and like I said, they
landed on the first wave of UtahBeach and I got a chance to spend

(25:23):
about twenty minutes talking to mister labLando's daughter today at his grave at the
Omah National Cemetery and learned some veryimportant lessons and was wonderful to hear the
stories from the families. And there'sa lot more stories like that where I

(25:44):
work, but that is one that'sspecial for today, and that's the powerful
stuff that we're looking for. Ireally appreciate you calling in and sharing that
with us today, and thanks forall the great work that you do,
and thanks for letting us know thatyou guys are doing that to tell thanks
to all your friends and colleagues overthere for us. Okay, we'll do
it. I appreciate you let mehave a voice to spread the spread the

(26:07):
word to other veterans and that aveteran story will never die and we will
always take care of them and lookafter them like they're there are. ED
really appreciate the call, man,Thank you so much for listening. You're
welcome. Thank you man. That'ssome good stuff. If that doesn't give
you the shivers or the willies,I don't know what would I just implore

(26:33):
everyone who's listening to us right now, if you got thoughts on DD,
please call us four two five fiveeight eleven ten. You know also email
Emory at kfab dot com. Iwanted to just real quick if you are
listening, you want to give toour kfab camp plus care radiothon with open
Door Mission. It's really easy,go to opendoor mission dot org. Opendoor
mission dot org. Just forty ninedollars helps provide camp plus, safe shelter,

(26:55):
nutritious meals, and quality care fora child. That is very,
very easy for us to do.It's just one night out. You can
give a child an entire week's worthof camp doing that opendoormation dot org.
You can call four oh two eightnine eight four six seven three four oh
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coming up five o'clock hour on newsradio eleven ten Kfab