The Screaming Eagles

The 101st Airborne Division, or otherwise known as the screaming eagles, is a modular infantry division trained for airborne assault.  During the second World War, this infantry division was used primarly to draw pressure off of the men who were landing on the beaches at Normandy, France and the Battle of the Bulge.  In World War Two, these paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines the night before the sea-bourne invasion upon the beaches at Normandy.  There were three major drop zones that these paratroopers were dropped at, A, B, C. 

Extra Credit Family War/Tie Post

When I look back on my family history or ask my parents about their experiences with their parents and World War I and II, I will usually get a blank reponse.  This went on for a number of years until my parents believed I was of age to hear this.  I never knew either of my grandfathers on both sides of my family so it was quite difficult to reviece stories about the war(not that they would be eager to tell about them either).  Now the next generation in front of my grandfather, which is my father and mother did not participate in either World War II, Vietnam or Korean Wars.  My father was born a year before the American invasion on France on June 6, 1944.  So at the end of the war he was just in childhood.  Once the conflicts in Vietnam and Korea came about, both my parents were able to skip the draft, both cause of age and because of college.  So my direct family does not have any major war experience like others.  Now I understand that this does not co-inscide with family ties with war, but one of my fathers idols and best friends was a member of a PT Boat cruiser on the Pacific theatre(see above).  He had passed away before I was old enough to hear stories that I could comprehend or connect to what I already currently know.

Saving Private Ryan/ D-DAY

As we approach our American/European theatre, I decided to watch one of my favorite movies ever, Saving Private Ryan.  I have heard about some critizims behind the films backround and supposed accuracy.  One of the main critizims behind this film is its one-sided approach to the European front.  Some people believe that with this film showing only the American flag and American troops attacking Germans, it looks as if the Americans actually won the war single-handedly. But this is to ignore the film's intentions: Saving Private Ryan is unashamedly an American story.  The now-famous 30-minute opening sequence depicting the frantic assault of the Normandy beach landings is harrowing and widely accepted as possibly the closest depiction of the real event that has ever been filmed.  This video is actual footage from the days preceeding and the day of the attack.  The movie depiction is too graphic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZCDfhoNxA&feature=fvw