I feel very honored to meet people who have a passion for history and really feel we owe our veterans a lot.

I come from a military Dutch family. My grandfather fought the Germans as a company commander in May 1940 until Holland had to surrender. I have lots and lots of letters written in that period and also pictures. My grandfather became one of the founders of the OD (Ordedienst), a big Dutch resistance group existing of former Dutch military personel. He even became a district commander but unfortunately got betrayed and arrested by the Sicherheid Dienst. But he did not give up and I have the letters he wrote while he was in prison. He found ways to get those letters smuggled out. My great aunt hid those letters in a can in the woods and dug it up after the war. I’m blessed she is still alive and even more blessed she gave the letters to me. The photograph shows my great aunt standing with the horses. One of the military horses was pregnant and gave birth just days before the Germans came into Holland.

I’m in the military myself and have a 10 year-old daughter named Lyahna. Her father was a Cpl with the Dutch paratroopers and died five years ago. Although he was buried with military honors my daughter finds it too hard to visit his grave. However, she seems to find comfort at a grave in Normandy to which we travel to visit 3 to 4 times a year. She chose that grave for a bigger reason I think. It’s because of her we started our search for any relatives of Cpl Shearer, the grave she seems to bond with at Colleville. She knows how hard it is to lose someone you love and yet she finds so much comfort in taking care of some of the WW2 graves. It’s pretty amazing. I am very proud my daughter feels that way. She always go there to lay flowers, etc. We adopted two graves in Normandy and recently she said, “Mom those two adopted graves, they are like my brothers now right?”. I could not be more proud of her.

This year I decided to give her a very special gift: the name of that paratrooper will be added to the Paratrooper Wall in Normandy reflecting also her father by mention of the slogan of the 507 as well the slogan of her fathers paratrooper unit (11 airmobile). The Plaquette will be revealed in August.

Due to safety measures (terror attacks in Europe) and the fact that I’m still on active duty, it’s not allowed to tag me or write down my full name.
~ Thulai

Stories Collected by Jenny La Sala www.JennyLasala.com