As more and more of the greatest generation leave us, we realize how much they gave us and how much we will miss them.
Via El Paso Times:
The El Paso region and the nation lost another of our World War II heroes last week with the passing of Maynard L. Beamesderfer, known as “Beamy” to his friends.
Beamesderfer, 92, of Santa Teresa was one of the 350 Pathfinders who were the first combat paratroopers to jump into Normandy, France, during the D-Day invasion of June 1944. He died Aug. 11.
“You talked to too many young fellows one day, and the next day you didn’t see them again,” Beamesderfer said in a 2008 interview with the El Paso Times on the 64th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe.
“It was heartbreaking to see them on the ground, saying ‘Help me,’ but we couldn’t because we were under such heavy fire.”
In a 2014 interview with the El Paso Times, Beamesderfer knew he was going to get drafted in 1942 and volunteered instead. A parachute ride he went on in 1939 at the World’s Fair in New York inspired him to become a paratrooper, he said.