FOR TODAY: In observance of Memorial Day. Freedom Park in Patsburg.
Back when I was planning the Free State Junction Railway , I wanted to include a tribute to my father, who as a World War Two vet. landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy France on June 6, 1944 with The Big Red One. Although Dad survived WW2, as the First Infantry Division pushed all the way through France and into Germany, many of his buddies didn't. One of those men was my Dad's Lieutenant ... Lt. Mackey ... who led his men off the landing craft onto the beach. Due to this being his third invasion Mackey had a 6th sense that if he led his men in the direction that his orders commanded, they would be wiped out by enemy fire. In the heat of the moment, Lt. Mackey told his men to follow him in a different direction once the landing craft doors were lowered. Sure enough Lt. Mackey was correct because artillery shells pummeled the area the orders would have taken Mackey and his men. After participating in three invasions and pushing all the way into Germany, Mackey died in Germany as he was hit by a sniper's bullet just a few days before the end of the war. If it were not for Lt. Mackey, I very well may not be writing this today.
I know that there were lots of Lt. Mackeys ... just not in World War Two but in all wars and I salute them always ... and in particular on this day.
Click on photo to enlarge. 
