In memory of my late grandfather - an unsung hero

This article was written by my son Jesse and posted on FB a short while ago. I was deeply touched by both the contents of this post as well as by my my son's initiative to share this in the public domain. I felt it appropriate to share this with the beBee community. Here then is the post written by Jesse Weinberg - shared by a proud father. 

On this day, June 6 1944, more than 160,000 allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy to invade, fight and stop the demonic Nazi war machine. One of those soldiers was my late grandfather John Gordon, a proud Scottish Highlander clansman (pictured here at age 19). A sapper in the British Army's 1st Assault Brigade Royal Engineers, assigned to the 79th Armoured Division for the Normandy Landings (D-day), he was part of the first wave of troops who landed on Juno beach. Part of his role was to clear the way for the armoured division whilst under heavy fire. In the operation he actually took a bullet to the head which luckily only lacerated his scalp.

John survived D-day and went on through Europe to assist with the liberation of Nazi concentration camps across Germany. The exact details of what he saw and had to do, remain a mystery as he could barely speak about his experiences. But his post-traumatic stress disorder from which he suffered, spoke volumes in itself. On his return to Scotland after the war, there was no work available so he headed for South Africa. He married, had two daughters and lived there for the next 50 years. He never recovered from his traumatic war experiences. He returned to his family in Scotland after his wife passed away in 1999. John passed away in Glasgow on 2nd March 2006.

As a proud grandson who never really got the opportunity to get close to John (nor did many really), this is just my small tribute to a war hero in my family and to the heroes in many other families who helped change the course of history and humanity, through their bravery and sacrifice. Good people of the modern world will forever be indebted to these heroes. We must never forget the rich wisdom embedded in the history they created just by doing the right thing.

"Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."
~Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces - World War ll).