The REAL POLICE FORUM is a leading community of police officers and law enforcement professionals. The forum includes police chat and restricted areas for police officers only. The ask-a-cop area allows you to ask questions to real police officers and only verified police are allowed to respond. REALPOLICE.com also features law enforcement jobs, news, training materials and expert articles.MikeG
06-06-12, 01:38 PM
Link: Twins, now 93, shared D-Day in combat (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/06/06/20120606twins-now-shared-d-day-combat.html)
I guess they used to be identical. One's a Lutheran now while the other is a Methodist. The tactic to confuse the Germans with GI Joe look-alikes landing on beaches in waves appears to have worked. :)
http://i.azcentral.com/i/sized/2/9/2/e298/j350/PHP4FCF78A752292.jpg
If you wondered where the crooked ball-cap fashion look came from, it's Elmer's cover on the left. Somehow his looks better.
Excerpted:
INDIANAPOLIS - American military veterans often call each other "brother."
But Elmer and Willard Rosebrough already had shared that title before facing combat on D-Day -- June 6, 1944.
Sixty-eight years afterward, the 93-year-old identical twins still haven't told the full story of their experiences that day or during the rest of the war.
....
There are no such estimates of siblings who fought in that war, much less twins, much less identical twin brothers who were both there on the beaches of Normandy for the Allies' invasion of Nazi-held France that fateful day, considered now to be a turning point of the war.
....
They ran a local hardware store together for 21 years after the war and sold it in the face of big-name competition before both moved on to the Farm Bureau Cooperative. They worked together in retirement until a few years ago, building decks and patios.
They finished each others sentences, and they still do.
.....
Even now, the brothers throw off wisecracks and one-liners. Asked to scoot a bit closer together for a portrait, Will responds, "We don't like each other that much." No chuckle, no hint of irony, but no question he is again one-upping his twin with a zinger.
....
And sure, a few days into France -- on June 16, 1944 -- [Will] was wounded, but no big deal. A mortar exploded nearby, and Will was hit with shrapnel that tore his clothes off, embedded in his front side and sent him to a hospital for a week.
"I think I was the first GI to change sex," he deadpanned, but he went on to have two children, Barbara and Gregory, with his wife, Betty, who died about 17 years ago.
After being sent back to the war, Will soldiered on, reaching Aachen, Germany, just across the border from the Netherlands. That is where he was seriously wounded, suffering a back injury on Nov. 23, 1944, that landed him in a London hospital for months. But Will doesn't describe the injury; instead, he says what didn't happen.
"I did not finish the war," he said emphatically, almost snapping the words out. Will was safe in a hospital, while his "brothers," including his twin, secured V-E Day. Just the same, Will received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
.....
"After the war, we lived a normal life," Will said, although that doesn't quite explain it all.
Other soldiers sacrificed their lives or performed as heroes; the Rosebroughs acknowledge only bit parts of their exploits. That was all they cared to share in their humble, matter-of-fact way.
"There's things you want to forget about. When somebody's shooting at you, it's not fun," Will said.
"But we'd do it again if we had to."
I guess they used to be identical. One's a Lutheran now while the other is a Methodist. The tactic to confuse the Germans with GI Joe look-alikes landing on beaches in waves appears to have worked. :)
http://i.azcentral.com/i/sized/2/9/2/e298/j350/PHP4FCF78A752292.jpg
If you wondered where the crooked ball-cap fashion look came from, it's Elmer's cover on the left. Somehow his looks better.
Excerpted:
INDIANAPOLIS - American military veterans often call each other "brother."
But Elmer and Willard Rosebrough already had shared that title before facing combat on D-Day -- June 6, 1944.
Sixty-eight years afterward, the 93-year-old identical twins still haven't told the full story of their experiences that day or during the rest of the war.
....
There are no such estimates of siblings who fought in that war, much less twins, much less identical twin brothers who were both there on the beaches of Normandy for the Allies' invasion of Nazi-held France that fateful day, considered now to be a turning point of the war.
....
They ran a local hardware store together for 21 years after the war and sold it in the face of big-name competition before both moved on to the Farm Bureau Cooperative. They worked together in retirement until a few years ago, building decks and patios.
They finished each others sentences, and they still do.
.....
Even now, the brothers throw off wisecracks and one-liners. Asked to scoot a bit closer together for a portrait, Will responds, "We don't like each other that much." No chuckle, no hint of irony, but no question he is again one-upping his twin with a zinger.
....
And sure, a few days into France -- on June 16, 1944 -- [Will] was wounded, but no big deal. A mortar exploded nearby, and Will was hit with shrapnel that tore his clothes off, embedded in his front side and sent him to a hospital for a week.
"I think I was the first GI to change sex," he deadpanned, but he went on to have two children, Barbara and Gregory, with his wife, Betty, who died about 17 years ago.
After being sent back to the war, Will soldiered on, reaching Aachen, Germany, just across the border from the Netherlands. That is where he was seriously wounded, suffering a back injury on Nov. 23, 1944, that landed him in a London hospital for months. But Will doesn't describe the injury; instead, he says what didn't happen.
"I did not finish the war," he said emphatically, almost snapping the words out. Will was safe in a hospital, while his "brothers," including his twin, secured V-E Day. Just the same, Will received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
.....
"After the war, we lived a normal life," Will said, although that doesn't quite explain it all.
Other soldiers sacrificed their lives or performed as heroes; the Rosebroughs acknowledge only bit parts of their exploits. That was all they cared to share in their humble, matter-of-fact way.
"There's things you want to forget about. When somebody's shooting at you, it's not fun," Will said.
"But we'd do it again if we had to."