VE Day ... how will you commemorate it?

I believe I will roll down to the VFW and raise a Bourbon "To our fallen comrades!"

I spent the day helping my wife with our catering business.

V-E Day Anniversary
Jonn Lilyea | May 8, 2015

Victory in Europe
It was 70 years ago today that the Nazi government of Germany capitulated to the Allies in Berlin, it was also US president Harry Truman’s 61st birthday. He became president on April 12th when President Franklin Roosevelt died just a few weeks before Adolph Hitler committed suicide on April 30th. The surrender document had been signed on May 7th in Reims, France, and again in Berlin on May 8th (largely for the benefit of the Soviets, but it was May 9th in Moscow when it was signed, so that’s their traditional V-E day) by the German government headed by Hitler’s sole surviving successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz.

Fighting continued in the East for weeks after the surrender, though, as German soldiers tried to get to the American and British zones of occupation instead of surrendering to the Red Army. Small German guerrilla units called Werewolf formed to resist the end of the war existed through the 1940s, mostly made up of Hitler Youth adherents who had known nothing but Naziism. The last German troops to surrender in the West, though, were on the Channel Island of Minquiers which had been bypassed during the war. The troops there surrendered to French fishermen on May 23rd.

Category: Historical

Well, GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad, I just found out that it is also Military Spouses' Day! I had planned on taking my wife to dinner anyway and toasting her as my favorite military spouse. Now, we'll have to charge our glasses again, and we'll toast my now deceased uncle, Sergeant George Brooks Curlee. He served with the 70th Infantry Division "Trailblazers" during World War II. The 70th spearheaded the Seventh United States Army's drive into Germany, south of Saarbrücken.

This photo of my uncle was taken on the Rhine River near the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen not long after its capture in March 1945.

Well, I would advise against walking up and kissing random girls. That may have worked in 1945....in 2015 that will get you arrested.

I will sit back and drink a couple beers (ok maybe a few) in remembrance of my uncle and all of those who served before me.  We truly stand on the shoulders of giants and there will never be a greater generation of men and women (both civilian and military) to come out of our great country.  

I'm headed down to Coeur d'Alene to referee a soccer tournament today. I'll choke up tomorrow with the funeral procession for Sgt. Greg Moore, a CDA police officer whose life needlessly came to an end. The service will be at Lake City High School where we'll be on the pitch doing games as the procession passes. Such a contrast; vibrant life vs. needless death. I recommended the games be paused as Greg passes by.

I have a hard time grasping the magnitude of what the Greatest Generation did and what it cost. So I'm in the "Bittersweet" category on this one.

Relax with some army buddies and count my good graces

VE Day 70th Anniversary "After Action" Report ...

http://themoderatevoice.com/204879/v-e-day-70th-anniversary-after-action-report/