D-Day

This  week, all Americans celebrate the 7th anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history.

It has special meaning for Orangetown, Homes for Heroes, the South Orangetown School District and Camp Venture.

Orangetown was the host site for Camp Shanks, "Last Stop USA,” the 2,200 acre military encampment and port of embarkation for 1.2 million American warriors who  spent 6 weeks of preparation  there before leaving for Europe to fight the beastly hitler-nazi regime from the beaches of Normandy France to Berlin, when the coward hitler committed suicide rather than face justice.

Homes For Heroes presently  leases the last significant 13.8 acre parcel of what was once Camp Shanks. It is the parcel on which rested the railheads of the trains that carried our warriors to the ocean-going troop carriers in the New York Harbor. It is to using the land build permanent rental homes on the parcel for our displaced and disabled Veterans as a living memorial to those who never returned.

Many were killed on Omaha beach on the morning of the first day of the invasion. One who survived was the late beloved Ray Bader, who returned to live in Tappan and become the beloved “Coach” Bader in the South Orangetown School District.

Later, Ray and his wife Mary, a teacher, joined the Camp Venture Family and “Coach” Bader became the first Director of the County’s first free all-day summer camp for people with Developmental Disabilities,  Camp Venture.  The Bader Family continues to this day to serve Camp Venture and the people in its care.

We thank God for saving “Coach”  Bader from death on Omaha Beach and we remember in prayer those American martyrs not spared.