60 Year Anniversary D-Day Re-Ena


	60 Year Anniversary D-Day Re-Enactment Conneaut, Ohio September 18th, 2004 Below are pictures I took of the D-Day Re-Enactment here in Conneaut, Ohio My father, Frank Becerra, was in World War II and was shot several times during that campaign. I told him about the re-enactment that would be taking place on the 18th of September and asked him if he would be interested in seeing it. He was a little reluctant to see it as he lost many friends in that war. It would bring back lots of terrible memories. Then..... he called and said he was coming to Conneaut. Keep in mind that this man is 90 years old now. He drove all the way from Peoria, Illinois to see this. After he got here, we went down to the park where the guys were setting up camp for the re-enactment and we met a few of them. Again dad wasn't sure he wanted to see the re-enactment. I reassured him that we would leave anytime he wanted if he decided to go. Saturday morning, he decided he would go. Carrying our chairs with us, my husband, my father and I walked to the bluff and found a spot on the top of the hill with a good view of the 'battle'. Dad met one of the men that had a brother who owned one of the planes that was to fly over the 'battle'. He enjoyed that very much. We sat right behind the members of the Model A Club and dad commented on some of their vehicles. After all... they were new when he was a child. Below are some pictures and explanations of what happened.
	Here are a few pictures of the battle. After the battle got going strong, I put my camera down and didn't get many of the heavy fighting. It was awesome as usual as there was a lot of ammunition fired and planes and jeeps and a 'duck' and I could go on and on....... The only unfortunate thing, this year, was that it was too windy and the ship or ships coming in from Lake Erie was cancelled. That is one of the exciting things about the re-enactment, that is seeing the ship or ships coming in for a landing and watching the guys all come ashore fighting.

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	Below you can see dad looking over some of the food rations and other items used during the war while he was serving.

	The guys were nice to pose with dad and they asked him if he wanted to hold a gun and wear a helmet. Dad said yes and posed proudly with all of the guys.

	This is dad with one of the reenactors from New York When dad mentioned that he was under General Rose in the war, this gentleman new everything about General Rose. He is very well read about the battle and its commanders.


	Footnote: I talked to a friend that lives in Germany and he said that they do WWII D-Day re-enactments there, also. The difference is that they do it on the Actual beaches where it happened and the funny thing is ..... The Germans play the Americans and the English play the Germans. They also do Civil War Re-enactments.