This week’s ceremonies, with the few remaining veterans in wheelchairs celebrated by all, brings up memories of my parents and their friends.\u00a0\u00a0In their youth, they fought a war to \u201csave the world\u201d, literally.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And then they went on to \u201cnormal\u201d lives.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what I wrote five years ago \u2013 but it\u2019s worth printing again, as the sacrifice of the \u201cGreatest Generation\u201d slips into history. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Both my parents passed away in the last few years. They were in their nineties, and lived a wonderful life together. They were active, travelling and enjoying, until just the last few years. Dad was on the tennis court into his 90\u2019s, and Mom walked the beach for miles. They were very happy, and very in love, and our family was very lucky to have them for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mom was born in London, Phyllis Mary Teresa O\u2019Connor. As the baby of her family she was nicknamed \u201cBabs,\u201d the name she used her entire life. She was British, and educated in England and later in Belgium. She married Donald Lee Dahlman of Cincinnati, an American soldier who was part of the vast US Army preparing to invade Europe. They joined in marriage on March 27th<\/sup>, 1944, in a civil ceremony in England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was a finance officer, and made sure the troops got paid. Mom supposedly worked in the Old Age Pensions Office in London, but was actually a part of the SOE, the Special Operations Executive. It was an elite unit who carried on the fight against the Germans in Occupied Europe, slipping into France on small aircraft to plot espionage attacks and communicate with the Resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were supposed to be married in June, but moved their wedding date up because it was clear that the invasion of Europe, D-Day, was coming. Both had received orders to report, so their ceremony was accelerated. Bab\u2019s mother got all of her friends to pitch in part of their sugar rations for the cake, and her brother Leslie contributed champagne he had managed to get off the beach in Dunkirk during the evacuation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dad\u2019s cousin and friend from Cincinnati, Buddy Levine, served as best man, and the two were married. It was a civil ceremony because Mom was Roman Catholic and Dad was Jewish. The Church wouldn\u2019t accept their union unless Dad promised to raise any children in the Catholic faith, and he wouldn\u2019t. In the end, the British end of the family had less trouble with the religious differences that those back in Cincinnati. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of her secret life, Babs spent time in the \u201cWar Rooms\u201d in London. Those were the secret underground headquarters of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his generals. SOE was a small group, developed and used by those top leaders to carry out their particular missions. She became acquainted with some of the commanding Generals; the telegram congratulating them on their wedding from Omar Bradley is still in the scrapbook. She adored Bradley, but didn\u2019t have much good to say about Eisenhower, who disparaged her \u201cuniform.\u201d The SOE was improvisational in much of what they did, both in Europe, and in their uniform choices. Babs didn\u2019t appreciate criticism from a \u201cYank General.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like most British citizen, Babs adored Field Marshal Montgomery, \u201cMonty.\u201d He was their \u201cwinner;\u201d the man who drove the Nazis out of North Africa and led the successful invasion of Sicily. She had a sketch of Monty, a small color drawing, done by a friend during a planning meeting. It was on the wall of Mom and Dad\u2019s home for sixty-six years and it\u2019s hanging in our family room today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the wedding there was little time for \u201choneymooning,\u201d just a couple days of hiking in the countryside. Then Don reported to Southampton, the debarkation point for much of the Army heading to Normandy. He would say he hit the beach \u201c\u2026with the third wave of WACs (the Women\u2019s Army Corp).\u201d He spent the next several month in France, making sure the GI\u2019s got their pay checks, and putting his University of Cincinnati finance degree to use trying to deal with the complications of French, Nazi, and Occupation currency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Babs left their wedding to report to headquarters, and was soon flying out of RAF Tempsford on a small single engine plane called a \u201cLysander.\u201d The plane could land on a short farm field, only 600 yards, and was designed to fly low and close to avoid enemy radar. Agents were dropped off in the night, often met by French Resistance operatives who put flashlights out to outline the \u201clanding strip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMom and Dad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
War Wedding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Secrets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Short Honeymoon <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Normandy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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