HomeMy WebLinkAbout20211638.tiffMike Freeman
This certificate is proudly presented to
RICHARD MANN
The Board of Weld County Commissioners would like to wish Richard Mann a very happy 100th birthday!
Richard was born on June 24, 1921, in Weld County and grew up on a farm. He currently resides in Milliken.
Richard recommends others not follow the crowd and to have a great work ethic. According to him, that's how his generation
survived the Great Depression and the dustbowl.
After surviving World War II, Richard's goal was to own a farm, which he accomplished. The most important product of
that farm wasn't the results of his daily toil, it was his children. The secret to Richard's longevity is something he learned
during his time in the war - control your curiosity and keep your head down.
Congratulations, Richard, on a milestone birthday and a life well -lived. Here's to many more happy years to come!
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Steve Moreno, Chair
Scott K. James, Pro Tern
2021-1638
6/23/20?1 The story of Richard Mann, the local WWII vet who just received France's highest military honor for his role on D -Day — Greeley Tribune
LOCAL NEWS
The story of Richard Mann, the
local WWII vet = • '. -- --- - ca on
France's highest military honor for
his role on D -Day
By TOMMY WOOD I BizWest/Prairie Mountain Media
PUBLISHED: October 11, 2017 at 11:41 p.m. I UPDATED: May 13, 2020 at 4:54 a.m.
Richard Mann will tell you he doesn't deserve this. Why should he be here, at the
Windsor Readiness Center of the Colorado National Guard, on this sunny
Wednesday afternoon in 2017, receiving the French Legion of Honor for his
service in World War II, when so many of his comrades never had the chance to
live to the age of 96?
It's not fair. But nothing in war is fair. So Mann accepted the highest military honor
France can bestow for all the men who couldn't.
"Those guys who gave their lives earned it," said Mann, who lives in Milliken. "The
only reason I'm in the deal is I'm a survivor."
In all, five local veterans of WWII were honored Wednesday, their medals
presented by Honorary French Consul General Jeffrey Richards. The ceremony
was the result of a continuous effort by the French government to track down and
honor American soldiers who fought to liberate France from the Nazis.
3
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6/23/2021 The story of Richard Mann, the local WWII vet who just received France's highest military honor for his role on D -Day — Greeley Tribune
Richards waxed about the "special relationship" between France and the United
States; France helped the U.S. win its independence from Britain nearly 250 years
ago, and in the 20th century, the U.S. twice helped save France from German
invasion.
The consul general made his way down the line of honorees, pinning the medals
to their chests, shaking their hands and hugging them. Mann was second -to -last.
He struggled to his feet, pushing himself up with his cane, but he stood tall.
"In the name of the president of the Republic of France and its people, I name you
a knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor," Richards spoke in French.
Mann responded emphatically: "Merci beaucoup!"
Mann graduated from Greeley High School — now Greeley Central — and attended
the Colorado College of Education and Colorado A&M University, which are now
the University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University. He enlisted in
the U.S. Army reserves in 1942 and started active duty in May 1943. He'd never
been on a train, "never been anywhere" before he shipped out to England as part
of the 111th Field Artillery Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. There, he trained
for the Western allies' decisive move against the Nazi war machine: the invasion
of France and the opening of a western front in Europe to aid the Soviet Union's
advances in the east.
The beaches of Normandy, on the northwest coast, were chosen as the spot for
the invasion of France, and after several delays the landings took place at 6:30
a.m. on June 6, 1944 — D -Day.
The 29th Infantry led the assault on a crescent -shaped section of beach
designated "Omaha." None of the boys of the 29th Infantry had seen combat
before, and little about the landings went according to plan. Wind and rough seas
took the landing craft off -course. Tanks were too heavy to float in the channel and
only five of the 29th Infantry's 32 tanks made it to shore. And the first attack waves
were utterly slaughtered.
Casualties rapidly climbed above 2,000. The situation was so bad Lt. Gen. Omar
Bradley, in command of the Omaha landing, considered calling it off and
evacuating the survivors.
"The cannon fodder is made up of young men who had maybe just graduated from
high school, with little training," Mann said, who was only in his early 20s at the
time. "They didn't know what to expect from the world. So many of those high
school guys didn't survive because they hadn't lived yet, and they didn't get a
chance to. There was a bullet waiting for everyone curious enough to try to see
the world."
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6/23/2021 The story of Richard Mann, the local WWII vet who just received France's highest military honor for his role on D -Day — Greeley Tribune
Mann was in the second assault wave, 30 minutes after the first. He arrived to a
scene of total chaos and carnage. Bodies floated in the water like driftwood. That's
when he made the decision that kept him sane — and perhaps alive.
"One look was enough," Mann said. "I shut it out. I guess that's how I got through
the war. I could see it, but it was blocked out of my mind."
Few soldiers could find their commanding officers or locate their objectives. They
just scrambled forward and tried to stay alive. Mann dove under a truck for cover.
A shell landed nearby. The shock was so powerful he thought he'd been hit. He
reached up to touch his face and felt a warm liquid he was sure was blood. Then
he looked at his hand and realized he was covered in grease from the truck.
He was lucky. The commanding officer of his 111th Artillery was killed almost as
soon as they landed. Mann watched a man rigging a cannon get his arm torn off
by a shell and bleed out.
But by noon, the Nazis started to run out of ammunition, and the Americans
managed to organize enough to advance off the beach. Twenty thousand
reinforcements landed the next day.
Mann was reassigned as a survey specialist. The army didn't have detailed maps,
so Mann and his comrades would scout territory and relay what they saw to the
gunners. He did this as the Allies advanced through France and Belgium, where
he fought near Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge. Mann was reassigned again as
a communications specialist, the job he held on May 8, 1945, when the Nazis
surrendered. Mann had fought his way to Borheim, Germany, by that point, and he
was finally going home.
He returned to CSU and completed a degree in animal husbandry, then spent five
years working for the Department of Veterans' Affairs, teaching veterans
agriculture. Along the way he married Laurilla Jane York, with whom he had seven
children. Mann worked as a chemist for the Great Western Sugar Company for 26
years and was the mayor of Milliken from 1958-70.
When the catastrophic 2013 floods came, that was the closest thing Mann had
seen to the devastation in Europe, where six years of war wiped entire towns off
the map.
"When we were done shooting things up, there weren't any livable houses left,"
Mann said. "If I was to wind it all up I would say I'm a survivor of the war and the
2013 flood."
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6/23/2041 The story of Richard Mann, the local WWII vet who just received France's highest military honor for his role on D -Day — Greeley Tribune
Mann went back to Normandy once, in the early 1990s, around the 50th
anniversary of the invasion. He intentionally avoided the festivities and the
reunions and the big -shots who came for that. Richard Mann went alone.
One morning, he hired a local to take him down to Omaha beach at 6:30 a.m., the
time the first troops emerged from their landing crafts into a world of smoke and
fire and blood. But this time, there were no bodies, no machine guns, no exploding
shells. The detritus of war had been cleared away. It was just a nice beach.
— James Redmond contributed to this article.
— Tommy Wood covers education for The Tribune. You can reach him at (970)
392-4470, twood@greeleytribune.com or on Twitter @woodstein72.
Tommy Wood
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