Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. We're cleaning like
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Speaker 1: Find out more at wilmata dot com slash doing our
Speaker 1: part remembering Normandy and D Day with the gent who
Speaker 1: visited recently because four hours simply enough. This is Armstrong
Speaker 1: and Getty extra large. Hey, this is cool. Jerry Evans
Speaker 1: joins us. Jerry is the owner and general manager of
Speaker 1: the Evans Broadcasting Company Incorporated, and specifically the mighty kk
Speaker 1: FT point one news talk on which the Armstrong and
Speaker 1: Getty Show airs, and we are honored to do so. Jerry,
Speaker 1: how are you, sir? Doing good? How about you? Good? Hey? Listen,
Speaker 1: So we understand that on the seventieth anniversary of D
Speaker 1: Day five years ago you spent several days in Normandy
Speaker 1: broadcasting there, met vets and did the whole deal that
Speaker 1: had to be just an incredible time. Yeah, it was,
Speaker 1: and it kind of fell into my lap. Kind of
Speaker 1: a slightly interesting story. If you're interested, I'll share with
Speaker 1: you fire away. Yeah, okay. So there's a guy who
Speaker 1: lives in the area. He's one of these young gazillionaires
Speaker 1: who invented the PBX firewall years and years ago. He
Speaker 1: has a place there on the channel right there in France,
Speaker 1: and a historic village called Old God which is down
Speaker 1: the coast from Sword Beach. My daughter, who had just
Speaker 1: graduated from Biola University, became that teacher. He has four
Speaker 1: sons homeschooled, and she was teaching them late April early May.
Speaker 1: He you know, asked her if she will accompanied them
Speaker 1: to France for the summer. He spent his summers there
Speaker 1: in France, and and would your parents like to go along?
Speaker 1: Would they like to come visit? First week of June
Speaker 1: would be a good week if they would like to come.
Speaker 1: So my first thought was I don't want to pay
Speaker 1: to go to France. I've never been interested in going
Speaker 1: to France. But then we got to talking, my wife
Speaker 1: and I and said, jeez, the first week of June,
Speaker 1: what's the historic significance and where is he again, looked
Speaker 1: him up and he's right down the coast from Omaha
Speaker 1: and all the beaches there, and we would be there
Speaker 1: on the anniversary. So um, that's how the trip came about.
Speaker 1: And we got over there, spent a couple of days
Speaker 1: there at Omaha, spent a day on Sword Beach. It
Speaker 1: was the last year that the Normandy Veterans Association was
Speaker 1: going to commemorate the event. Um obviously because of the age.
Speaker 1: And here's a here's a real kicker for you too,
Speaker 1: to make a point about socialized medicine and medicare for all.
Speaker 1: So to speak with a British health care system is
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this until talking to them, but it
Speaker 1: is hard to leave the country if you're up in
Speaker 1: age because the British do not want to have to
Speaker 1: pay too met vacuum back home to England to treat you,
Speaker 1: so they have a hard time leaving the country. Really,
Speaker 1: that's an interesting nugget. Yeah, the country that they fought
Speaker 1: for risk their lives for um, if you want to
Speaker 1: even if you're in good health. But I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is if there, if it's because of the age,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can do it. Because of
Speaker 1: a waiver, or if you sign a waiver, but you
Speaker 1: can't hardly leave the country because the government does not
Speaker 1: want to pay to bring you back home if you
Speaker 1: get sick or God forbid. And the casket. Now we'll
Speaker 1: get off on a topic. Really easy with that one.
Speaker 1: But dead, that's what you get. Socialize these things. So
Speaker 1: we did sword Beach that day. Those guys were just boy,
Speaker 1: they were just having the time of their lives, drinking champagne.
Speaker 1: We interviewed several of them, Henry Grew, Doug, Austin's, Red Stevens,
Speaker 1: on and on. And I'm horrible with names, but I
Speaker 1: remember these guys names really well and and fortunately have
Speaker 1: their recording. And then also um, then we spent the
Speaker 1: day there at Omaha and um that was really good.
Speaker 1: And here's one point I would make about France in general.
Speaker 1: If you could make a comparison or an analogy between
Speaker 1: San Francisco and the San Joaquin Valley, It's like Paris
Speaker 1: and Normandy. Normandy is the countryside, and those people love Americans.
Speaker 1: Everywhere you go along the coast, you'll see Canadian, British, French,
Speaker 1: and American flags in everywhere that you could possibly think
Speaker 1: to see them. They and it's a national holiday. All
Speaker 1: the radio stations broadcast with speeches on d Day when
Speaker 1: we were there, you know, it was Obama, the Queen, Putin,
Speaker 1: etcetera there and it's carried on every broadcast that there
Speaker 1: is hundreds and hundreds of school buses and so tho
Speaker 1: is people get it, um, the people of the countryside
Speaker 1: of France and so uh and if I can plug,
Speaker 1: we're gonna rebroadcast what we did, uh you know, five
Speaker 1: years ago this Saturday on this radio station. It's also
Speaker 1: available on our podcast through our website at FM talk
Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks for let me do that. Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's make sure we have a link at
Speaker 1: Armstrong and getty dot com so people can find that.
Speaker 1: And what time is that going to be Saturday? It's
Speaker 1: gonna be nine to noon this Saturday podcast. And give
Speaker 1: me a heads up because I want to get in
Speaker 1: one thing that was extremely um interesting to me in rewarding,
Speaker 1: which was my host um new a family over there
Speaker 1: that had been there forever. They have a big estate
Speaker 1: called val Roche near the coast, and so I interviewed
Speaker 1: this lady. In fact, he prepped it with this will
Speaker 1: make your broadcast. So I spent a day over there
Speaker 1: at this place called val Rochet, on top of a hill.
Speaker 1: This woman named Pauline was about eight or nine years
Speaker 1: old when the Germans invaded and they took over this estate.
Speaker 1: They didn't destroy it. But and there is a distinction
Speaker 1: between the Nazis and German soldiers and and so the
Speaker 1: German soldiers they basically occupied this estate during the war.
Speaker 1: They drew all sorts of pictures all over the there
Speaker 1: was a big room above the garage. And by the way,
Speaker 1: this was built this it was built originally as an
Speaker 1: abbey in eleven fifty. They don't they don't make them
Speaker 1: like that anymore. Uh, it had been added onto And
Speaker 1: by the way, during the war they parked their car
Speaker 1: in the dining room. That's not that's impolite at dinner parties.
Speaker 1: But that's not cool. They weren't pretending to be at
Speaker 1: the drive and but no gasolane, so um they and
Speaker 1: and to keep it from being bombed or whatever, they parked.
Speaker 1: That's how big the estate was. And uh, and just
Speaker 1: extremely interesting interview with her again she was eight or
Speaker 1: nine through this time. She played it. She said her
Speaker 1: and her sister. They took the bullets um from the
Speaker 1: soldiers and they would play a game, not even though
Speaker 1: the soldiers weren't playing along, but they take their bullets
Speaker 1: and throw them in the She called it a lake
Speaker 1: on the property. It was just a big pond, but
Speaker 1: she would take their ammunition and throw it in the lake. Wow.
Speaker 1: This morning, this morning, President Trump referenced something I thought
Speaker 1: was really interesting. Uh. He was talking about the American
Speaker 1: soldiers that are buried in Normandy, and he was saying
Speaker 1: that that French families had pretty much adopted those soldiers.
Speaker 1: Each family would take one of the soldiers and they
Speaker 1: would come out every year and they put flowers at
Speaker 1: the graves and actually brought them into their own family.
Speaker 1: Had you did you experience that kind of kind of vibe?
Speaker 1: I mean, did you hear that? Have you heard that story?
Speaker 1: I haven't heard that per se, But I will tell
Speaker 1: you the if you want to move being experience you
Speaker 1: walk around that cemetery and I can tell you. We
Speaker 1: have a listener a friend of ours who has a
Speaker 1: cabin up on Silver Lake near us, Carol Winzel, who
Speaker 1: wanted us to go and look at her uncle's grave. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, they give you the row and everything and
Speaker 1: just really moving. You know, I didn't. I try not to,
Speaker 1: you know, go John Baynard, Glenn Beck on the microphone.
Speaker 1: But the most moving experienced my my wife's uncle was
Speaker 1: with a hundred first and dropped in behind anime lines
Speaker 1: and standing there on the beach, there's this big map
Speaker 1: and in fact, I think I saw Trump and uh
Speaker 1: some other dignitary standing at that map this morning on television. Um,
Speaker 1: looking at that map where it shows you where what happened. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was pretty moving. Um. But the the cemetery itself,
Speaker 1: here's another interesting thing that people do. Um. And the
Speaker 1: beach is gold, the sandy is gold colored. And by
Speaker 1: the way, UM, I want to finish this thought, but
Speaker 1: then get to the next one, which is something that
Speaker 1: was interesting is people will take some of that sand,
Speaker 1: that wet sand, and they'll put it in the names
Speaker 1: on the crosses, which are I don't know the right term.
Speaker 1: It's not embossed, but you can put it in there.
Speaker 1: So it'll stay there for a day or two while
Speaker 1: it dries out. So it's kind of a unique look
Speaker 1: and it's kind of I don't know, there's significance. I
Speaker 1: can't really put it into words where people will take
Speaker 1: the sand off the beach where they were killed and
Speaker 1: put it rub it into the on the cross. So
Speaker 1: it's it's in their names. And there's something really poignant
Speaker 1: about that that I can't come up with the words
Speaker 1: to describe. But at the other point I wanted to
Speaker 1: make is it is the best depiction of D Day
Speaker 1: is saving Private Ryan when you're there on the beach
Speaker 1: and it's just wide open, the tide goes out forever
Speaker 1: and you're just a shooting. I mean, it's just there's
Speaker 1: nothing to protect you as you're running out of those
Speaker 1: Higgins boats onto the beach. Uh. And we stood in
Speaker 1: some of those German bunkers where they were you knew
Speaker 1: that they were just mowing down Americans nearly nine thousand
Speaker 1: that day, And um, it gives you a weird feeling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it does. And so can you can you
Speaker 1: walk on the beaches? Are they blocked off at this point? Can?
Speaker 1: We played that song from that veteran that Jim Radford,
Speaker 1: So it's the number one song on Amazon right now.
Speaker 1: And he wrote this song in n because he showed
Speaker 1: up there and kids were playing on the beaches and
Speaker 1: he thought, Wow, people have forgotten what happened here? Are
Speaker 1: there still kids playing on the beaches? Are they more
Speaker 1: you know, marked off as hallowed ground at this point? Uh,
Speaker 1: I would say the former, as in, during the year,
Speaker 1: I don't know, um, but during leading up to and
Speaker 1: during D Day, you can you can walk those beaches.
Speaker 1: I mean I would assume, um that, uh, that you can.
Speaker 1: It's I mean it's a kind of like the Pacific coast.
Speaker 1: That's the coast of France. Sure now, but during that
Speaker 1: you see a lot of roses, a lot of flowers
Speaker 1: in the beach. Um. It is really a moving experience
Speaker 1: that I want to tell both of you guys everybody
Speaker 1: listening there, that you you really should do. This is
Speaker 1: one of the if you if you don't want to
Speaker 1: go to Europe like which I don't really like going
Speaker 1: to Europe very much at all, and I haven't been
Speaker 1: to Europe that much at all. This is one of
Speaker 1: the bucket list things that you gotta do. Is and
Speaker 1: especially if you can be there around that time. You
Speaker 1: won't get anywhere near on D Day. Um, the roads
Speaker 1: are just you you just can't get there. But if
Speaker 1: you can get there a week before three or four
Speaker 1: days before and spend some time there. You will, It's
Speaker 1: experience of a lifetime. I'm gonna do it, Jerry, and
Speaker 1: we'll get on the phone and uh and and compare
Speaker 1: notes or have a cold beverage or something that sounds good.
Speaker 1: Alright the time, Jerry Evans, we appreciate your time too,
Speaker 1: and thanks for doing that. This is just a great
Speaker 1: thing to do, and we'll look forward to hearing that broadcast.
Speaker 1: I'd like to do that with my boys someday. That'd
Speaker 1: be pretty cool. Oh yeah, so when they get older,
Speaker 1: maybe that's a plan I make. Yeah, yeah, till oh
Speaker 1: my god, my mind just went to the end of
Speaker 1: saving Private Ryan. Oh again, gonna get Dusty in here.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've seen the end of Be
Speaker 1: Honest with You, Um, the end is uh. One of
Speaker 1: the characters in the movie spoiler alert, who who's there
Speaker 1: at the cemetery with his grandkids, I think it is
Speaker 1: and talks about the men who are lost and talks
Speaker 1: about just wanting to be having lived a life worthy
Speaker 1: of surviving um and worthy of them that was lost,
Speaker 1: that we're lost. It's incredibly moving, touching, and again, if
Speaker 1: you want to check out that rebroadcast. We have the
Speaker 1: link for yet armstrong and Getty dot com extra large.
Speaker 1: When you're ready to ride Metro, we want you to
Speaker 1: know we're ready for you. Here are just a few
Speaker 1: of the people at Metro to tell you how we're
Speaker 1: doing our part to keep riders safe. Cleaning like nouble before,
Speaker 1: but half built a great clean You've found half stand
Speaker 1: towns of stations all over the Metro. No mask, no
Speaker 1: Metro need one. We have a few extras at Metro.
Speaker 1: We're doing our part to keep the d C area moving.
Speaker 1: Find out more at wilmata dot com slash doing our
Speaker 1: part