1st I could not put up another post before expressing my gratitude to all of you who have read my post about my Dad. There's a reason this is the best forum on the internet. While the knowledge certainly speaks for itself it's the contributors and their values that makes this site what it is. I know my Dad would be humbled by all your acknowledgements. THANK YOU!
What I failed to put in that post was my Dad was 17 when he made that invasion. Talk about man up. Most important is my Dad did not put that case together. My Mom did after my Dad passed away 29 years ago. She found what's in that case while going through is personal belongings. Neither her or I know anything about those medals other than the Purple Hearts which he wore the wounds of. I guess that's the take it to their grave mentality so typical of that generation.

 

This expresses with simple eloquence the debt that we owe but which we can never repay.

 

This man - Alger Johnson, was our neighbor many years ago where I grew-up. After the war, he got a degree in engineering on the GI bill, & worked a career as a Ford engineer. He drove one of the landing craft to drop troops at Sword Beach on D-Day. About 20 years ago on Halloween, we stopped by to take our daughters for the rounds at the old neighborhood (Livonia, MI.) - it was our tradition when our girls were small. Anyway, Mr. & Mrs. Johnson were there passing out candy & invited us in - I knew them since I was 7. I had one of my books with me - about D-Day. I had Mr. Johnson sign it for me & asked him about that day - that's when I found out he had landed men at Sword. He said they went in unopposed - there was no resistance there, so they wondered if it was all going to be a cakewalk. Upon backing-up to get into deeper water & go get another bunch of soldiers, one of the twin screws on Alger's LST got hung-up on a German underwater obstacle - a Belgian Gate. It damaged the propeller & when he got back to the ship (with difficulty), they sent him back across the channel to get it repaired. I don't know many of his WW2 exploits, but I know he had Stuka shell shrapnel in one of his legs as he ran off of an anti-aircraft gun he was manning. That Stuka made a second go-round & that time, it was the pilot vs. Alger 1-on-1. I remember him telling the story one day & he said when he jumped off the gun & ran, he ran faster than any human could run - it was kind of chilling the way he told it. One of his sons said he found a photo of him probably in France, with a girl in each arm & a bottle of wine in each hand. Here's the only photo I have of him. Both Mr. & Mrs. Johnson passed a few years apart probably 15 years ago. Mrs. Johnson had been a nurse during WW2. RIP to both of them.