Letters to the Editor (As published.)
The Island Packet - The Beaufort Gazette
June 12, 2016
D-Day story touches the heart
Your story on D-Day about the 82nd Airborne Division soldier, Ralph Ticcioni of New Berlin, Wis., - shown at the American Cemetery in Normandy, being hosted and celebrated by the people of Ste. Mere-Eglise on the anniversary of D-Day - touched my heart and called to memory what I did on that day so long ago.
On that day in 1944, I was a 7th grade student in St. Patrick's Boys School in Lowell, MA. Shortly after school opened, we were marched over to the Church where Pastor Father Meehan led prayers for the men storming the beaches in Normandy, France. After the prayers, he declared a school holiday and we all went home.
We hung by the radio throughout the day for news of the men of the Allied Forces who were fighting for their lives and gaining a foothold on the continent of Europe. They would not be tossed back into the sea.
Today, we honor those gallant men, the few still alive and the 9,000 who rest in the American cemetery in Normandy. We will not see their like again.
In Memory.
Francis X. Archibald
Hilton Head Island
Send comments to: arch@archibald99.com
