Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day!
I have to admit I can get pretty choked up thinking about Veterans Day.  I'm so happy we take a day to recognize and say THANK YOU to those you have made the sacrifice to defend our freedom and keep us safe.

I have hundreds of great stories about my Pop Pop (Grandpa Beirn) who fought in WWII.  My grandfather was a medic.  Seriously, I think it is one of, if not the hardest, emotional duties to be assigned to.  His time as a medic continued to affect him the rest of his life.

Pop Pop stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.  He was the first medic on the beach and set up the first medic station.  It brings tears to my eyes thinking about the young men who were falling around him and how he fought to save their lives as they fought to preserve ours.  However, I don't want to go on about the trials of that day and the many days he spent in Europe freeing the Jewish camps.  This story is a good story...

Several years after my Pop Pop went to heaven my Grandma got a knock on her door.  It was the postman with her mail.  He asked her if she was related to George Beirn who fought on D-Day.  She said yes.  He said he was just filling in today for her normal postman and had never done this route before.  He said that he was also there on the beach in Normandy that day and was wounded.  He remembers laying there receiving aid from the medics.  He saw the name BEIRN on the front of the medic's uniform.  He memorized it, as well as the unit and ranking he saw.  He swore that he would find the man who had saved his life that day on the beach, and thank him.  Sadly, he never got to thank my Pop Pop in person but was able to thank my Grandma.  My Pop Pop had saved this man's life as well as many others and we were given the gift of a wonderful story confirming what we already knew, Pop Pop was a hero.