Ray’s Rock - Omaha Beach
On the morning of June 6, 1944, 23 year old Staff Sergeant Arnold “Ray” Lambert came ashore with the first wave of the 1st Infantry Division on the eastern side of Omaha Beach. At this small patch of concrete he saved nearly 20 lives:
The division came under intense fire from several German bunkers surrounding the entrance to the Colville Draw (one of two exits off Omaha Beach). Ray, a medic, immediately went to work.
He was shot in the arm. Moments later he was hit by shrapnel in the leg, but Ray kept pulling men to safety. He pulled nearly 20 wounded soldiers to cover behind this 8ft wide obstacle, treating each soldier before going out in search of others.
After several hours under fire, while pulling a wounded soldier from the ocean, he was struck by a landing craft. It dropped its ramp on top of him, breaking his back. He fell face down in the water, drowning. The craft backed up and nearby soldiers pulled an unconscious Ray to safety, eventually evacuating him off the beach.
Remarkably, Ray had already earned two Silver Stars and three Purple Hearts in Sicily and North Africa, prior to landing in France. But here in Normandy his war would end.
He awoke in a hospital back in England a day later. In the next bed over was his brother, who had also been wounded at Omaha.
When asked about his work on D-Day, Ray simply said, “I did what I was called to do.”
Ray Lambert passed in 2021 at 100 years old. He exemplified the best of American grit and why remembering this day is so important.
“Right now, CBS News is on fire”
Scott Pelley: “We need adult supervision and at the moment we don’t have it. We have people who’ve been installed in these jobs who through no fault of their own have no experience in television. It’s not their fault, but they don’t know what they’re doing. There’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes or CBS News before. That is my hope, a return to sanity. A return to honor, a return to courage. We used to have all of those things in abundance and now we don’t. We can save this. It’s possible to land this plane. But right now, CBS News, in my view, is on fire”
Charlie Sheen reveals the time he spent $7,000 on 2,200 seats to catch a Cecil Fielder home run
“That was April 1996. I did it for Cecil Fielder. In Anaheim at the Big A”
“I called because I wanted to sit in that section. They said, ‘Well, that section’s closed. It’s an underattended game.’ I said, ‘Okay, what about this? How many seats are in that section?’”
“They were like, ‘Uh, 2,200.’ And I said, ‘What if I wanted to buy all of them? What kind of break could you cut me? What kind of deal could you swing?’ I think it came out to something like $7,000”
“It was left field. I wanted to force the hand of the baseball gods and not just catch a foul ball, but catch a home run ball. I figured if I’ve got the entire left-field stands with a couple buddies of mine, I’ve stacked the deck”
“We were hammered. We barely made it to the game. There’s also a great shot in Sports Illustrated of me standing like this with a glove and the empty stands behind me”
“We didn’t catch anything that night. And the next night, not just in that section, but in our seats, four home runs were hit. You can’t force the hand of the baseball gods”
General Omar Bradley called it the most dangerous mission of D-Day. He was not wrong.
At 6:30am on June 6, 1944, 225 Army Rangers approached a 100-foot sheer cliff face on the Normandy coast called Pointe du Hoc.
Their mission: climb it.
The cliff was vertical. The Germans were at the top with full visibility of everyone below. As the Rangers fired grappling hooks upward, the Germans cut the ropes. Shot the men hanging on them. Dropped grenades over the edge onto the climbers beneath.
The Rangers kept climbing.
It took roughly 40 minutes. Men fell. Men were shot off the ropes. The ones behind them grabbed the ropes and kept going.
They reached the top.
Then came the gut punch: the massive 155mm artillery guns they had been sent to destroy were gone. The Germans had moved them inland before the invasion. The entire mission had been sent to destroy guns that weren't there.
Most commanders would have regrouped and called it done.
The Rangers fanned out. Two miles inland, they found the guns, hidden in an orchard, already aimed at Utah Beach and loaded to fire. They destroyed every one with thermite grenades.
Then they dug in. Cut off, with almost no ammunition, no reinforcements, and no resupply, 225 men held Pointe du Hoc against relentless German counterattacks for two full days.
When relief finally arrived, only 90 Rangers could still stand and fight.
Their names are carved on a memorial in Normandy. Most Americans today cannot name a single one.
PELLEY: “Paying the bribe to Trump broke our hearts, but they did it to get the sale through.”
GARCIA-NAVARRO: “Paramount denied those two things were linked.”
PELLEY: *laughs*
D-Day was one of the most monumental days in the history of mankind.
Don’t take my word for it, watch this video from Andy Rooney, who saw it with his own eyes.
Share it with everyone you know, especially your kids.
Private Carlton Barrett was possibly the smallest man in his regiment.
5 feet 4 inches tall. 125 pounds.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, he landed at Omaha Beach in neck-deep water, machine gun fire cutting the surface all around him. He made it to shore.
Then he turned around and went back in.
A soldier was drowning. Barrett pulled him out. Then another. Then another. For hours, under constant fire, this 125-pound man waded back into the surf again and again, pulling drowning men to safety and physically carrying the wounded to evacuation boats offshore.
But he didn't stop there.
He ran dispatches the full length of the fire-swept beach. He found soldiers paralyzed by shock and calmed them back into action. He appeared wherever the crisis was worst, doing whatever needed doing, treating rank and personal safety as irrelevant details.
He did this for hours without stopping.
His Medal of Honor citation says his courage had "an inestimable effect on his comrades." That is military understatement for: this small, anonymous man held that section of beach together through sheer force of will.
He survived the war.
His comrades later said his life darkened after he came home. He lived quietly and died in 1986 in California, largely unknown outside of military history circles.
5 feet 4 inches. 125 pounds. He went back in.
Remember him.
“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney
Scott Pelley responds to Trump saying he doesn’t care about the country: “I’ve never worn the uniform, but I’ve been in combat for this country. In Afghanistan, and Iraq, Kuwait. Been shot at. Spent nights in foxholes filling up with water in the desert. I’m not aware that the president has ever done any of those things for his country. You become a journalist because you love the First Amendment, you love the country. While all the other descriptions the president used about me might be applicable, not that one”
WTF timeline are we on. Someone called me the MAGA whisperer and I’ll gladly take the title. Left, right, D or R we all want the same things. We’re being divided on purpose by the Epstein Elite Oligarch class because as long as we’re at each other’s throats, they get fat and rich off of our misery. The second we figure out we agree on more than we disagree, they’re done. Love your neighbor. Be yourself. Radical honesty. No fucks given, no fucks taken. Everything else is just noise. (But still fuck Jake “Brick Tamland” Tapper on any time line)
In the 1950s and 60's, screwworm was devastating in Texas, costing billions ( adjusted for inflation) annually. In 1935, 180K livestock were lost to the fly. 50% of deer fawns died, and the fly decimated deer populations. We have to get on top of this urgently.
President Trump is floating the possibility of keeping the UFC arena on the White House South Lawn — built for a series of fights on his birthday and Flag Day — permanently.
Read more: https://t.co/PdI3ZarEYr
A herring is a fish.
When a herring is preserved by salting and smoking, it turns red and smells.
It's so pungent that it's a great diversion to distract hunting dogs from their trail.
Now, a ‘red herring’ refers to anything that diverts attention from the issue at hand.
The Pope’s Prayer intention for the month of June is to pray “for the values of sports”, that all sport may promote peace, fraternity and communion.
“Lord of life, we thank you for the gift of sport, for those who glorify God through the exercise of their bodies, for the friendships born on the field and the joy of playing as a team.
You teach us that in life, as in the game, no one is saved alone. We need others to grow, to learn respect, to overcome our limits, and to celebrate together the victories we achieve.”