DDay Memorial Ceremony 6 6 24 1

good morning everyone and welcome to the Portuguese American veterans of brista County celebrating the anniversary of operation of the Lord as many many may know his better as D-Day the Portuguese American veterans of CH County take this great pride in hosting this event with the city of Fall River in the early pre-dawn hours of uh June 6th as operation over lord was taking shap thousands of paratroopers and gliders

demolition teams laid charges to clear 63 hours The Invasion began at began 15 156,000 Allied troops landed that day and by by the end of the longest day 10,000 casualties 44 just read 44 4,414 allies di died and in which two 2,51 were American soldiers the field not for the less of Conquest the fight to end Conquest fight to liberate President Franklin D Roosevelt officially addressed the nation announcing the

invasion these are the men who took the cliffs These Are the Champions who helped free and and continue these are the heroes who help end the war President Ronald reager at this time I would like to call Father Rob for the prayer let us pray Lord God We Gather on this 80th anniversary of dday where more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported operation overload The Invasion to battle evil and

tyranny in our world as President Roosevelt prayed on that day our sons pride of our nation this day have set Upon A Mighty Endeavor a struggle to preserve our Republic our religion and our civilization and to free a suffering Humanity with thy blessing we shall Prevail over the Unholy forces of our enemy and that is what happened on D-Day 80 years ago today along a 50 mile stretch of heavily fortified French

Coastline reverently almighty God on this day we honor and remember those Allied soldiers killed or wounded that day as well as the over 400,000 US military personnel killed in the second world war we humbly acknowledge our debt to them and ask to go for the strength to go on towards the ideals for which they fought and died as they gave themselves to advance world peace and Justice and equality may they Inspire

our continued efforts towards this same end today unite the people of our nation to defend the freedom justice equality and peace for which they fought and died this we ask in your holy name amen present I mean National Anem we'll try we'll try to do

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at this time I would like to invite mayor

kougan well honoring your veterans on dday celebration in the city of Fall River is so important to acknowledge what they did ad years ago to keep this country free and safe sacrificing people from our country to go to France and help to free the rest of the world it was a very very important holiday I mean very very important Memorial Day and we should never forget the service that went on in

in honor of those that lost their lives to make this country free I think father Rob said everything I could say so I appreciate everybody for coming out today and um we pray for them we have our guest speaker father robod thank you my grandfather of blessed memory Navy P petty officer John mlicki served on the USS Corey dd- 463 well the USS Corey was one of the lead ships and operation overload on the

Normandy invasion on dday 8 years ago today more than 5,000 Allied vessels 700 warships crossed the English Channel for the invasion of Nazi occupied Europe convoys Bound for Utah Beach Force U made up the right flank of the Armada Convoy u2b was the furthest out ahead of the other convoys and was led by the USS Corey and the USS fit at 0633 while shelling enemy positions behind

Utah Beach and simultaneously attempting to avoid German fire the Cory was hit by a mine midship according to the official report the mine's explosion caused immediate flooding in the forward engine and fire room firsthand accounts reported that when the mine exploded four floor plates were torn loose and the sound of Rushing Water could be heard the Destroyer situation quickly deteriorated as she

lost all electrical power and her Rudder jammed the resulting mechanical malfunctions came as she was trying to make a hard right turn at high speed and as a result she went circling in a movement among the waves and lost all steering the quy was soon broken midship and was sagging badly as water reached the main deck at approximately 0639 just 6 minutes after she was hit lieutenant Commander Hoffman the

commanding officer passed the word to Abandoned Ship moments later the deck was under two feet of water and her crew abandoned the ship with the captain being the last to depart an active leadership that later earned him a silver star the Cory's remains protruded from roughly six fathoms of water and her crew clung to anything that could float as they were set a drift with the waves around around her while that

action kept them from sinking nonetheless they were subjected to continue German shelling which was still targeting the Corey's location even after she had been torn apart the surviving crew spent nearly two hours in the water as German Munitions continued to explode in the area a tragic circumstance that added to even more Brave Sailors to the list of casualties as Lieutenant Commander

Hoffman recalled probably the majority of the casualties occurred and the water for as late as 2 hours after the ship had been sunk the batteries continued to Shell the men in the water the stranded Sailors found it difficult to wrestle with the waves that pulled them both towards the wreckage of the Corey as well as towards the Hostile Shoreline a circumstance compounded by The Frigid

temperature of the water which led to exposure claiming yet more lives for those who survive the shelling in the sea their rescue came at 0 8:30 when the fit and the Hopson entered the area and fended off the German Shore batteries they along with the Butler and PT 199 assisted in rescuing the Cory's crew on that dday the crew Su substained considerable casualties during the sinking so blessed was my grandfather

that he was one of the survivors he lost 22 Shipmates that were either killed or missing a couple of them his good friends that were hit by German artillery while in the water this is just one of the thousands of stories from that heroic day my grandfather never spoke much about that day but one thing I do know is how much he loved his country and that he never missed Holy Mass on both

Memorial Day and Veterans Day God's blessings on the greatest generation this time I'd like to call on upon uh state representative uh K folo to read the proclamation that's listen father Rob mayor councelor Pereira veterans thank you for letting me be here today um after that reading father and story as you said of thousands uh we clearly know why we call it the ultimate sacrifice and we call

our veter Heroes and um it's really moving and um thank God your grandfather did survive my father was a World War II veteran his brothers were World War II veterans like many of our family members sadly today out of the 16 and a half about 16 A5 million Americans that served in World War II we have less than 120,000 left we lost one of our very own a couple of weeks ago uh who would have

been probably in Normandy as we speak and being being honored but certainly he is being honored in the ultimate way right now um it's an honor to be here as you know this city is Head and Shoulders above every other city in terms of honoring its veterans this Commonwealth is the number one state in the country for providing resources and support to our veterans and I'm very proud to be a

part of the legislature that in fact guarantees that today I bring greetings from my colleagues who could not be here uh but I'd like to read today the citation uh presented by the governor a proclamation whereas on the 6th of June 1944 Allied Forces launched the largest Seaborn invasion in history known as D-Day and whereas The Valor sacrifice and determination of the Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy France

exemplified the highest ideals of bravery and heroism and whereas the success of Operation Overlord marked a pivot turning point in World War II leading to the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny and whereas we honor the memory of the thousands of soldiers who gave their lives on D-Day and the countless others who fought bravery for freedom and whereas on this day we reaffirm our commitment to upholding the

principles of Liberty democracy and peace for which they so gallantly fought and whereas every 6th of June shall be commemorated as a day of remembrance gratitude and reverence for the heroes of D-Day whose courage and sacrifice shall never be forgotten therefore I Mora T Healey governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts do hereby Proclaim June 6 2024 to be dday Remembrance Day and I urge all residents

of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance given at the chamber in Boston the first day of June in the year 2024 and the independence of the United States of America the 247th and as we stand here today in front of the Portuguese veterans Monument um and on certain days we stand at the Polish veterans Monument we and all the other

um uh groups uh cultural groups of our community uh I I just am so proud to see that 1951 this Monument was erected by the Loyalty Association I have no idea who they were I'll be curious to learn more about them but um today we will tip our hat a little extra to the Portuguese Americans who came to this country to fight for our freedom and so I salute them today thank you for honoring them

Victor there you go thank you uh like to repes uh have uh Linda PR come up vice president of the city council please say a few words I had a a crazy day I welcome all and I've got to say father Rob that that was incredible what you said my um Godfather also um gave many stories about D-Day uh Normandy Etc um but it's nice to see so many people here and I'm

happy to see that in for River we do honor our veterans clearly Heroes can you imagine being in the water and your comrades being on the side of you and seeing somebody get blown up on the side of you I can't even imagine and no wonder your grandfather didn't talk about it a lot because it's horrible memories um but thank you for putting this together and it's funny I I stand here

and I see the uh Portuguese American uh statue that's here and my dad was here when they erected that CU I was born in 55 and um he was here I love this statue and um I'm glad that Victor and the Portuguese American veterans put this together thank you so much Victor and thank you to all of you gentlemen who came uh we now have closing uh prayer father

Rob let us pray on this day as we remember all those who gave their lives in service of our country on D-Day and throughout the second world war to save humanity and to liberate so many throughout our world through their sacrifice they have taught us the true meaning of patriotism and that Devotion to Country which rises above Creed color and class the words of President Roosevelt's

prayer that day again apply to us today 80 years later he prayed and we pray lead us to the saving of our country and with our sister Nations into a world Unity that will spell assure peace a peace and vulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men and a peace that will let all live in Freedom reaping the just rewards of their honest toil thy will be done almighty God to all the heroic dead

we honor this day Grant the light of your presence and may the good work done in them be continued by us this we ask in your most holy of names amen this time I like to prepare everyone for a rifle salute and Taps by the aror guard uh 207 Vietnam Veterans of

America fire fire arms face present arm

again it this time I'd like to thank everyone that we showed up M hugan father Rob the administrative SE Congress uh representative carola the vva brista county the DAV uh Council Pereira the Parx Department came out um everyone else here the the veterans of uh of American the honor guard and uh everyone else so appreciate it thank you very much