Distinguished Clients

Denny Thompson

For the 55th Anniversary commemorations in 1999 and 60th Anniversary in 2004, I had the pleasure of escorting a highly decorated veteran Pilot/Bombardier Denny Thompson, his family and some friends around the D-Day beaches. Denny flew and served in the 8th Air Force as a 1st Lt. Pilot-Bombardier for 30 lead missions in B-24 and B-17 four engined bombers. He was part of 487th Heavy Bomber Group of the 839th Squadron based at Lavenham, England where he was stationed from April 12th, 1944 to December 4th 1944. He flew his 6th mission on D Day, June 1944 when he bombed a German headquarters at Liseux.

During the 55th commemoration ceremony at the American Cemetery where he had presented a wreath, Denny met, by chance, a civilian who was a child in Liseux at the time and who clearly remembered that night. Denny seen here wearing his original uniform [right & above], was awarded 13 medals:

• 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses
• 2 Purple Hearts
• 4 Air Medals
• 4 Bronze Stars
• 1 French Freedom Medal

Denny with Perception Travel Director, Michael Phillips

Presenting the wreath at the American Cemetery June 1999

It was indeed a privilege to conduct this tour.

Michael Phillips,
Proprietor, Perception Travel Ltd.

Sea Change

"History is the geology of human experience, a study, as it were, of tragedy and comedy laid down in the strata of past lives. In death there are no winners or losers, merely people who once lived but can never live again. What they thought, what they believed, what they hoped, is largely lost. That which remains is history."

© Robert Goddard. Extracted from Sea Change by Robert Goddard, published by Bantam Press, a division of Transworld Publishers. All rights reserved.