LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Group,
I have just returned from one of the most exciting days of my life, attending
the D-Day Museum Dedication in New Orleans. I urge all of you to visit this
wonderful tribute to our fathers and grandfathers who fought in World War II.
Stephen Ambrose's dream is now a reality that will surely inspire and
encourage our younger generations to know about the sacrifices made by their
elders. I know that my 14 and 15 year old daughters have a new respect for
all the veterans they were surrounded with yesterday. As they said, "we love
hearing their stories". This is the way history was meant to be taught.
On a personal note, if you do get to the museum, please notice the long
skinny pennant that is folded back at an angle. My dad was stationed on the
U.S.S. Augusta, a young lowly seaman assigned to one of the big guns. During
the invasion he looked up to see the commission pennant of the ship floating
toward the deck, about to go overboard. He scurried from his post (having
been warned NOT to leave it under any circumstance) to retrieve it before it
went overboard. He had put it up under his shirt and was returning to post
when he bumped into General Omar Bradley who told him to return to his post
immediately. When they discovered the flag was missing they searched the
ship three times. My dad was so scared he would be court-martialed for
leaving his post, he didn't tell anyone he had picked up the flag. He also
kept it tied around his waist and didn't change clothes for a week until he
thought it was safe to take it off. He rolled it up in a ball and put it in
the toe of a sock in his locker. He never told anyone until he later went to
a reunion of the Augusta. It was framed and hung over his chair for years
and years. He died before Saving Private Ryan came out, but when my mother
heard about the museum, she immediately called them and offered the pennant.
We all cried when we saw it and my dad's picture on the wall.
At the big gala in the arena, one of the speakers discussed Stephen Ambrose's
"call" to make this happen. He had had a university professor who eschewed
the normal term paper research in favor of having his students do original
research, so they could "add to the collective knowledge of the world." One
phrase ignited this man's passion into doing just that. What a gift he has
given us all.
When you go, take your teenagers and your veterans. You won't regret it, and
neither will they.
Penny Lamont McAllister
Central Elementary School
Tuscaloosa, AL
pmcalli718@aol.com
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