Joe Dawson, local D Day Hero. I never had the honor of meeting him.

[surfered]

1st Infantry Division. Enlisted as a private, ended as a Lt Colonel.

Dawson landed with his company at the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach early in the morning on June 6, 1944. After being pinned down on the beach, Dawson led his men up a narrow ravine, now known as "Dawson's draw," from the beach to the top of the bluff on which the American cemetery now sits. He personally cleared a German machine gun nest with an accurate throw of a grenade. He is known as one of the first officers to reach the top of the bluff overlooking the beach. Once at the top, he led his men to his objective at Colleville-sur-Mer, where he was wounded on the afternoon of June 6.

For his actions that day he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and at the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Dawson was selected by the Army to speak at the ceremonies as the representative of the troops who landed that day.

[MustLoveBeagles]

1. Your bravery hasn't been forgotten

[efhmc]

2. Ages ago when I was redoing this house and my gson was fascinated with the person working outside on a new lanai.

He would call his name (Mr. Hale) We were and still are in many ways formal about names especially for children. I still do not know his first name. Later when I became friends with his niece I learned his first name but he is still "Mr Hale" to me and to my family. Well my gson just graduated from CU with an aeronautical degree. Not sure he remembers his hero. But maybe he does when I told him he was one of those thousands of heroes who stormed the French beach on DDAY.