Filed under: Books, German Perspective, Marines, Normandy, Operation Dragoon, Paratroopers, Tours, Veterans | Tags: Cody Green, Denzel Washington, Heinrich Severloh, John Carter, Mark Dolfini, Omaha Beach, Paul Woodadge, Ted Gundy, Thanksgiving
Being the end of the year, I thought I’d look at some statistics and share them.
My top-ranking posts since I started this blog is dominated by one post, but the top 5 are all good posts:
Thanksgiving 1944 1,413
This got a huge number of hits due to being linked at Ace of Spades, thanks to our friends at Bring the Heat. On Thanksgiving of 1944, Eisenhower ordered that all soldiers have a turkey dinner. For airborne engineer John Carter, that provided a very humorous story that I was able to post the video of. I have some further videos of an interview with Carter and a couple of other stories. He’s quite a comedian.
While the Marine Corps is made up of strong men, they also have strong hearts. A couple of times recently, they’ve made young men with terminal illnesses honorary Marines. The story of Cody Green and his honor guard, SGT Mark Dolfini, can’t help but move one to tears.
Denzel Washington at the Fisher House 236
Denzel Washington is among my favorite actors. He has great range and conveys the emotions of his characters very well. Some of his roles have been as military men and he’s gotten attached to the Fisher House. Fisher House Foundation is best known for a network of comfort homes where military and veterans’ families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. When Washington visited the Fisher House at Brooke Army Medical Center in 2004, his generosity launched an urban legend.
Heinrich Severloh was a German machine gunner at Omaha Beach and the horrors he helped inflict that day stayed in his dreams until his death in 2006.
For about a decade, Paul Woodadge built up a battlefield tour business in Normandy, expanding from a one-man operation, hiring several others to lead tours. Battlebus was the best tour company in Normandy and even had tours in Bastogne. Unfortunately, running a complex business and dealing with French tax and employment laws meant that Paul stopped being able to lead tours himself. While I lamented the end of an era, it meant that Paul could go back to doing what he loved. He also had time to publish Angels of Mercy: Two Screaming Eagle Medics in Angoville-au-Plain on D-Day (Normandy Combat Chronicles) (Volume 1)
As Cody Green lay dying, Sergeant Mark Dolfini stood guard outside his room. In crisp dress blues, wearing his NCO sword, Dolfini gave silent testimony to the courage that Green had demonstrated his entire life. Green’s example inspired the Marines he so admired.
Cody Green never stood on the yellow footprints of Parris Island, never qualified at the rifle range, nor wore a set of dress blues, but the 12-year-old who’d wanted to be a Marine all his life was made an honorary Marine for his bravery in his fight with leukemia. “They decided Cody, with the strength and honor and courage he showed through the whole thing, he should be a Marine,” Cody’s father David Snowberger told WLFI.
His obituary is posted on legacy.com:
Cody E. Green, 12, of rural Flora, died Saturday, April 28, 2012, at 12:45 p.m. at Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis. He was diagnosed with A.L.L., a form of leukemia, in late 2001. He was treated and was in remission until a relapse in 2007, treated again and was in remission until relapsing again October 15, 2011. He had been a patient at Riley since March 2, 2012. He never asked “Why Me,” and fought the illness with grace and humility, never complaining about his treatment or care, saying “Thank you,” to the many health care professionals that cared for him. For this, he was rewarded with Honorary Marine from the United States Marine Corps.
Semper Fi, Devil Dog. We’ll see you on the other side.
Thanks to the folks at Unconventional Military Art for sharing this via Facebook and to Barbara Mikulski at snopes.com for the confirmation.
We're not lost, Sergeant, We're in ... France 