By Sharon Challenger
(August 29, 2022) —Many people complain that we seldom hear any uplifting stories in our world of news.
However, today on one of our local Social Media pages, some good news was published.
Neal Blodgett, Higganum’s D-Day Veteran, will be celebrating his 101st birthday on August 30, 2022!
This fine gentleman enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and was quickly sent overseas. One of the highlights of his military career includes being on the receiving end of George S. Patton’s command to, “Unload this (expletive) ship and get it out of here!”
His travels took him to places such as Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia and Burma via the Suez Canal, to name just a few.
In 1944 his ship traveled to England where they prepared for the invasion of Normandy. During an interview with Mark Soneson, Neal said he “will never forget being part of a nearly 7,000 ship armada forging its way across the English Channel.”
We are forever grateful for Neal’s service to our country and are so very fortunate to have him as our “neighbor.”
To read Soneson’s hk-now.com 2021 article about Neal, click here: https://hk-now.com/100-years-old-and-still-going-strong/
Photo by Julie Brutzman Cook
