At the D-DAY commemoration of June 1989, I was riding my Harley WLA and a
young son of a friend of mine was in charge of driving my Willys MB... We
had then a small group of veterans under our "tutelage" because we spoke
english and were among the founders of the group...A certain Jim Flanagan
was there, a veteran of the 101st airborne, and we establishn our first
contact in Sainte-Mere l'Eglise. SUbsequently, we took him as a passenger
of the jeep and made a point of riding with him to all the memorials as a
"Vip" escort, that is the Jeep with an escort of four Harleys, sirens
ablazing... At the end there was the customary parade in the streets of
Bayeux. He rode shotgun there too, in his dress uniform and American legion
cap. It was very touching for me, as a Frenchman to see him waving at the
crowd as we drove by very slowly, and seeing french people and their kids
moving towards the Jeep to touch his hand...
Mercifully, i was wearing polaroid dark lenses on my goggles, so nobody
could see the tear in my eye...
When I came back to the US of A, I kind of procrastinated too long in
sending him pictures of the event, pictures of him in the Jeep with the
crowd, at the memorials, in fornt of a Sherman tank etc...The pictures came
back to me with the "unknown" note on the envelope...I assumed that he
passed away...
I still have the pictures, if any one knows of a Jim Flanagan, veteran of
the 101st Airborne, still alive somewhere...
I'll never forget those whom I owe the freedom of my country to...and thank
God, there ARE some Americans, too that remember their history and the help
the French brought to George Washington...
What goes around comes around...or is it the other way? :))
Antoine
Antoine Compin
Sherman Oaks, California
AND/OR: Normandy, France
Jeep Willys MB 1943
Trailer MBT 1943
Harley-Davidson 42WLA
Harley davidson 42XA
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