My D-Day story

I know most of you have probably seen this picture many times before. It was taken by an Army photographer on June 5th 1944... right before our unit was due to drop behind the lines as part of the Normandy landings on D-Day.

But what you don't know is the real story behind the photo.

Well, I promised "Scratchy Lee"... he's the fellow standing to my left in front of Eisenhower wearing the number 23... that when he finally passed away, the truth would be told. Scratchy died yesterday at a VA hospital in McLean Virginia at the age of 91. His last words to me were "Let 'em know, boy!"

The night before the drop; Scratchy, me, and a guy we called Brooklyn Bob got into a mix-up at the Officer's Club at Biggin Hill outside of London. We had snuck in for a drink and everything was going fine until Brooklyn Bob started arguing with some Brit bar-tender over the proper way to spell "draft" beer. It seems Bob got confused when he saw it spelled "draught" behind the bar.

Next thing you know, Scratchy leaps over the bar and starts pounding on this poor bar-tender. Brooklyn and I are pulling Scratchy off the guy when the MPs show up. Now, Scratchy... who got his name because he always managed to pick up lice in the London brothels... is in no mood to let it go. He starts wailing on the MPs and before long the whole place is in an uproar. Bottles start flying everywhere...MPs are yelling to break it up... chairs and tables are getting thrown... it was a madhouse.

Turns out… Ike was upstairs with some floozy skirt and was highly distressed that the commotion was breaking his concentration. The next day, he lines us up on the airfield parade ground and this is when the photographer took the picture. Ike is looking at Scratchy and Brooklyn Bob saying "Look, you assholes. It's spelled D-R-A-U-G-H-T... get it?"

By the way... and this is the part Scratchy didn't want me to let on... the number 23 he's wearing is actually a haze that the platoon sergeant made him put on. It stands for the number of times we had to push Scratchy out of the plane to make him jump.

Anyway... now you know the story.