bobby brown

HTTR

[Dave Scarangella @DaveScarangella]

Tonight, as I do every year at this time, I’ll be raising a glass to a scared young man, who 82 years ago was preparing to go ashore on the beaches of Normandy as part of an event code-named Operation Overlord.

D-Day.

I can’t imagine what was going through his mind. I’d be scared to death and I’m sure he was too. But in that first wave was a 21-year-old Private First Class from Henry County, VA by the name of Allen Homer Sink.

Fortunately, he would survive that initial wave, participate in battle until it ended in August, then come home to marry and raise a family of four, including two daughters after the war ended.

He would also become my father-in-law until his death in 2006.

His nickname for some reason was “Hank” and when I asked him how he got it, he said some guy in the Army said he “looked like a Hank.” From the time I first met him, he was a salt-of-the-earth man who was never afraid of anything. He was a carpenter by trade, and he’d stand up on the tallest roofs, grab bumblebees with his bare hands when they tried to persuade him to move elsewhere, and never be bothered by anything.

His hands were tough and leathery, but he was a softie. He spoiled his children, complained when my mother-in-law would gripe about something involving one of his alleged misdeeds, and always thought he was fooling everybody when he snuck around the back of the house and lit a cigarette, a habit everyone opposed but he could never part himself from.

He could talk your ear off for hours at a time, and I always suggested he become a greeter at Wal-Mart when he retired because then he could talk all day to strangers and none of them would – like his wife and daughters often did – tell him to be quiet for a few moments. Yet for all his love of talking, there was one subject he just wouldn’t discuss.

June 6, 1944. Omaha Beach.

In 1998, when he was 76 years old, the subject came up again. The movie “Saving Private Ryan” came out and the beginning was gruesome. Reviews said it was incredibly realistic to what really happened that day. I asked Hank if he wanted to go see it.

“No,” he shook his head. “I don’t ever want to see any of that again.”

He did offer that he remembered the night before when troops were loaded into the boats for the amphibious assault. He said it was raining and that once everyone was in place, they gave everybody ice cream and told them to try to get some sleep. Then the next thing he knew, they were waking everybody up telling them to stay low and head for the beach.

No, that doesn’t sound like somebody drugged the ice cream. Not at all.

That’s all he would say about the subject, and he never said another word about it until the final months of his life. Alzheimer’s would gradually rob him of his mind, and as his condition deteriorated, memories of the past would briefly spill out. One evening he thought I was his commanding officer and he was back at Normandy. It is the only time I ever saw him where he appeared to be scared. Ever.

It reminds me every day of something I had unknowingly taken for granted. The greatest generation did fight in and win World War II, then did incredible things over the next 50 to 60 years after the war. But many carried unspeakable memories from the War, ones they would never talk about and carry inside them to their graves. Those veterans lost a piece of themselves in battle they would never, ever, get back.

I mean, how can you at the tender age of 21 storm a beach, see friends die only a few feet from you, wonder each night if you will wake up alive the next morning and then return home a year later and try to pick up on the same normal life you had before you left? I told him once that after seeing “Saving Private Ryan”, I understood why he was never afraid of anything; after you’ve made it through something like that, everything else pales in comparison.

So tonight, I raise a glass to Hank and the 150,000-plus men, who like my father-in-law, were very young, very scared, and still charged that beach, paying a price that even for the survivors would last the rest of their days.

Rest In Peace...

[Warren Sharp @SharpFootball]

"This is all about our country. I love the USA. I love my teammates. I'm so proud to be an American today…. Just a ballsy, gutsy win...that's American hockey right there."

Jack Hughes after scoring the game winning goal

[FFBuck 🏆 @FFbuckCLE]

Ohio State has won 12+ games in a season 9 times since 2012.

Michigan has done it 5 times since 1879.

[ESPN @espn]

"I can't believe God gave me the chance to be a Buckeye." 🙏

This means everything to Will Howard 🏆

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@billbarnwell He said they should put in Mariota…

[Andrew Golden @andrewcgolden]

The Nationals are calling up top prospect Dylan Crews to make his major league debut on Monday against the Yankees, per multiple sources. @grantpaulsen had it first.

He’ll DH tonight for Rochester and then will head to D.C.

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@BFW AJ Hawk

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@UnnecRoughness Not 2020 - Michigan claimed covid and ducked the game

[Sam Block @theblockspot]

Joe Burrow is the highest paid QB.
Nick Bosa is the highest paid DE.
Joey Bosa is the highest paid OLB.
Denzel Ward is the highest paid CB.
Corey Linsley is the highest paid C.
THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYE$.

[Nationals Player Development @Nats_PlayerDev]

Not one but TWO homers on the day for Dylan Crews!! 🚀

Crews recorded his first professional multi-home run game, going 5-for-5 with six RBI.

[Nationals Player Development @Nats_PlayerDev]

🚨 Dylan Crews hits his FIRST GRAND SLAM with the @FXBGNats!

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

A monumental Washington day: NFL owners now have unanimously approved the $6.05 billion sale of the Washington Commanders from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris, per league source.

[Scott Van Pelt @notthefakeSVP]

Hard to overstate how well received the news of the sale of the Commanders will be in the DC area.

List of priorities for the new owner in no particular order:

Build at RFK site.
Ditch Commanders name and look.
Go back to Burgundy and Gold - Call it Football Club - whatever.
Most importantly: Nothing united this area like this team. People who experienced that just need an on ramp to come back. A reason. Give them one.

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

we did it! he's gone.

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

OVECHKIN‼️

HE PASSES GRETZKY FOR MOST GOALS ON THE ROAD IN NHL HISTORY‼️

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@JPFinlayNBCS Now do every Ron defense when first ballot Kuechly wasn’t on the field..

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@JPFinlayNBCS We won’t be good with Ron.

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@JPFinlayNBCS @RonnGz77 eh used to the losing. it’s not the name/logo but just feels like every new rollout in the rebrand has been done poorly and made me feel less and less connected with the team. I still care (will never not be able to), listen to every pod etc but they’re making it hard.

[bobby brown @bobbrown131]

@andystaples first time long time. think the RYP has a glitch. Rule say “select up to 10” but then it lets you pick every game. Fwiw The Audibles RYP blocks from picking more than 10 games