Rich Hartung 1939 Desoto.
Yesterday being June 3rd I attended with my car as a participant at the WWII renatctment weekend event at the reading, Pa event which is held at Spatz field. This event is one the of the largest WWII events on the east coast.
I have been participating in this event for the past 15 years and have had the great pleasure to have met and talked with a lot of distinguished WWII veterans.
Las t year I met a veteran that was in the second wave of the landing on D-day at Omaha Beach. This gentleman was a Medic. When I met this gentleman his son was with him and we were talking about my 39 Desoto and then he introduced his father to me. I immediately saluted this war hero and he returned the salute. During my one on one talk with this gentleman there were approx. 30 people listening to what he had to tells us. This was such a great experience for me personally. The rest of the people just let me drive the conversation which lasted about 30 minutes. At the end I reached out to shake his had and say thank you, but he said no thanks was needed, he stated just remember the brave men that gave their lives for us to be here today and then he saluted me and I return the salute back to him. At that point the people that were standing around all applauded him and he had a tear in his eye.
The moment and experience of this day will be with me forever and we all cannot thank our WWII vets enough for what they did and any veteran for what they gave this great country.
Rich Hartung
Desoto1939@aol.com