Memorial Day Weekend: Thomas Faranda

No, not my brother Tom Faranda, but the Tom Faranda he was named after. 

Whatever you are doing right now, you are doing it free from fear and confident in your future. You have much to look forward to. And for that, you owe a debt of gratitude to a US soldier. 

Tom Faranda was my father’s cousin, who was part of the invasion of Normandy in 1944. He perished in the assault of the beach, and  his remains were never found. He was in an amphibious tank which was hit and never made land (I asked my brother if there is a remote chance that he somehow crawled to shore and was nursed to health by some Mademoiselle and lived out his days with a beret sipping wine, to which my brother responded “on Omaha Beach?”). My brother Tom found out what division he was in once, and maybe he’ll post that. But the first Tom Faranda gave his life in the liberation of France and the defeat of the Nazis. He died for his country and the liberty of man. 

Tom Faranda. Now you know his name.