hannajo

I would love to go around and give a big hug to each and every veteran today. But I'm unable to do that. I will, however, reflect on the great men I have known personally who gave their all for this country. My grandfather was a carpenter's mate in the Navy during WWII. His unit landed on Omaha Beach the day after D-Day (D-1). His job was to fix boats that had been damaged the day before. When he got home, he wrote this poem about his unit, Salvage Group 4.

"We Did Our Bit"

We’re not a combat outfit, nor fighting men are we.
We are just those sailors, who never go to sea.

We fight the war with saws and wrenches,
We live on the beach in holes and trenches.
There’s never a chance for heroes here,
We just do our bit without any cheers.
No one knows we’re in the war.
We are the members of Salvage Group 4.

We hit the beach at D-1,
We had no protection, not even a gun.
We went to work as soon as we could,
Repairing the barges made out of wood.
We patched a boat here, and salvaged one there,
We worked when it rained and when it was fair.

We worked day and night, ‘till we had the beach clean,
In fact it was the best I ever had seen.
So our work was all done, and we were ready to leave
When a storm broke out and this is hard to believe.
When the rain had stopped and the wind blew no more
We saw two months more work for Salvage Group 4.

There were ships on the beach both large and small
We never did bother to count them all.
There were VP’s and M’s on top of CT’s
This mess was all caused by the troublesome seas.
So we worked twice as hard as ever before,
But still it was easy for Salvage Group 4.

One by one the wrecks left the shore
Back to the U.K. to sail once more.
Our job isn’t done yet, it won’t be long
I say we’ll be home Christmas, I hope I’m not wrong.
Then after the war is over and in our parlors we sit,
we can tell our kids about France and how we did our bit.
*** finis ***
Thomas C.B.

I would love to see your stories too, about everyone who did their "bit" for the sake of USA.