Rich Gilloon

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

10 HIM worked their way through The Canyon on a beautiful Saturday morning, starting at the edge of the Missouri River and finishing on a much too small rugby field on Gene Leahy Mall. Great fun and thanks to all those who participated!

[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...

[Alex Grand @Comichistorians]

#AdamSandler, #RobSchneider, #ChrisFarley portray #dccomics’ #Superman’s funeral in 1992 on #snl. Seeing a live action John Stewart #GreenLantern and Professor #Hulk is pretty damn cool!

[JB Slear @JB_Slear]

In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a History teacher at RobinsonHigh School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.
'Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?'
She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.'
They thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.' 'No,' she said.
'Maybe it's our behavior.' She told them, 'No, it's not even your behavior.'
And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still no desks in the classroom. Kids called their parents to tell them what was happening and by early afternoon television news crews had started gathering at the school to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.
The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk-less classroom. Martha Cothren said, 'Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'
At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.
Martha said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and families so you could have the freedom you have. Now, it's up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it.'
By the way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded the Veterans of Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year for the State of Arkansas in 2006. She is the daughter of a WWII POW.
Do you think this email is worth passing along so others won't forget either, that the freedoms we have in this great country were earned by our U.S. Veterans?... I did.
Let us always remember the men and women of our military and the rights they have won for us.

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

@Turbo_Durbo1 Couldn’t disagree more. Many football players try out for wrestling, either in HS or college and walk away from it. “Too hard”. They then go back to football which doesn’t have the exhaustion factor that wrestling does.

[Purler Wrestling @purlerwrestling]

Wow … the bottom part says it all

[Dov Kleiman @NFL_DovKleiman]

Wow: The legendary Bo Jackson tells Marshawn Lynch when he "Got Got" in the NFL while playing for the Raiders.

"We were down on our 5-yard line, so I'm thinking about 95 yards. There was an LB. This brotha had muscles on his breath. He hit me on the 6 & dropped me at the 2."

💀💀💀

[𝐃𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐇 @pr0ud_americans]

Back in 1979, Rodney Dangerfield stepped onto the Tonight Show stage and gave Johnny Carson the kind of no-respect masterclass that still has people losing it decades later. Pure gold. Watch this legend in action 👇

[Glenn Marini @GlennMariniWANE]

VIDEO: Legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz has passed away at the age of 89. While he achieved success in South Bend, he made several trips to the Summit City. We take a look back on his time in Fort Wayne to remember the Hall of Fame coach. #GoIrish @NDFootball

[Timmy Hyde @CoachTimmyHyde]

We always talk about 88 Miami, 93 FSU but it’s this night…1988 Game 1 vs. Meeechigan that truly sets the tone. Listen to the roar of the crowd when those gold helmets enter the tunnel awaiting Coach Holtz signal to enter!!!
#RIPLouHoltz #GoIrish ☘️

[Noirchick In Old Hollywood @Noirchick1]

Born this day, 2/26/1916 — the great Jackie Gleason. Watch his brilliance in this classic "The Honeymooners" clip, where the comedy lands perfectly… almost entirely without his dialogue.

[Todd Spence @Todd_Spence]

In 1976, Joe Cocker performed as SNL's musical guest but surprised the live audience when John Belushi came out to duet as his famous SNL impersonation of him 🔥😂 so good

[402 Boneyard @4oh2boNEyard]

Cleansing everyone’s timeline with the greatest run in college football history.

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

@Aliya562219 @wydseno 2

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

@Hawks_Wrestling How come no one is going for the pin? It’s all takedowns.

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

@Tate_Chietgen @F3TheWoodshed @F3Omaha Keep up the good work Munger! So glad you’re in F3!

[Rich Gilloon @gilloo50997]

@F3Canyon Thanks, all the closed Roads were a little confusing.

[Historic Vids @historyinmemes]

Cheyeene actor Clint Walker shows of his custom made gym in an interview, circa late 1950s. He was 6ft 6in and 240 pounds.