The Longest Day of the Year is upon us. More time for Adventure!

Here are 7 quick and fun facts about the solstice from timeanddate.com:

​1. Universal. The Solstice is and has been celebrated by every culture across the planet, basically for ever. It is part of the human experience.

2. Relative Observation. Technically the Solstice is when the Sun is directly above the Tropic of Cancer which occurs at 0424 UTC (think Greenwich) today. For those of us living in CST North America Solstice occurred at 2324 last night. 

3. Today is the first day of Summer.

4. Counter intuitive. Today the Earth is actually farthest from the Sun in her annual trip.

5. The earliest sunrise happened a couple days ago; the latest sunset will happen a couple days from now.

6. Daylight surplus. The Arctic Circle is experiencing 24 hours of Daylight. Bring shades.

7. While the Arctic got 24/1 sunlight we in CST North America [only] got 15:54 hours of BOB.

​The great news: That's more than enough time for a lottle [sic] Adventure!

That is more than enough time for 954 pica.adventures
-or-
Nearly 32 microadventures
-or-
4 Mini Adventures
-or- get crazily efficient and have yourself a straight-up adventure and sleep on the Winter Solstice.

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​#Time enough for 900 #adventures. Make the most of #solstice and #summer @ www.wanderlost.today

Happy DDAY. Never Forget. Happy, not for the consequences of that extraordinary day but for the results.

The greatest coalition gathered the greatest force ever assembled not to conquer for polity but to free for liberty. ​

Every year I try to bring a humble homage to the Heroes of that fateful day so long ago. Those Heroes were our grandfathers and great-grandfathers...our brothers. There are very few of our brothers left that were there, in the Norman sand, breaching the Atlantic Wall in the first trudge of victory in Europe.

It was the deathblow of humanity's greatest foe and the first labored breath of freedom's youngest champion. DDAY turned the tide for freedom and shaped the world we now enjoy.

Please take a moment to read the transcripts of the previous two years "D+" articles now published here.

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D + 26, 298

The anniversary of DDay is the spiritual resonance of the greatest effort ever put forth by man.

Whew, that’s heavy.  Another thing it teaches us is that years of effort go into the big days and that after the ‘grand opening’ there are still lots of long days of hard work.

DDay was essentially conceived on the day after Pearl Harbor in the sense that FDR and Churchill had a teleconference in which they determined – despite Imperial Japanese aggression – the primary focus of the Allied war effort would be to defeat Nazi Germany.

It would take another 11 months after the DDay landings to defeat the Wermacht and receive a surrender from second Fuhrer.

The idea came to life the second week of December, 1941; was executed during the first week of June, 1944 and culminated just after Cinco-de-Mayo in 1945. Flash-to-Bang: 4 1/2 years.

As this article posts, it will be the 72nd anniversary of D+2. The worst carnage of beaches was over but the hard slog had just begun. In two days, two million troops had been brought ashore in Normandy. The regular units were making contact with the far-flung paratroopers. The British had begun there encirclement of Caen, the primary city of Norman France.

99,000 air sorties were performed in support of the ground effort, destroying half the Luftwaffe in French forward airfields.

In the channel sea one of the greatest engineering efforts in history was undertaken: The deployment of the Mulberry Harbours. The Mulberries were massive precast, concrete blocks (caissons) that could be fitted, like giant LEGOs, to form harbors capable of supporting shipping traffic until a European deepwater port could be captured from the Germans.

​D + 25,932

Saturday marked the 71st anniversary of the D-Day. (No, not USD’s homecoming)

Operation Neptune, the landings in Normandy, France. “The greatest day of the 21st century,” according to Baylor University Professor Ray Starman.

I have, for many years, greeted my friends and comrades with “Happy DDays,” upon the anniversary much like people salute “Merry Christmas.” They always think I am a little off. But I believe that if any day deserves remembrance it was June 6th 1944.

In order to breach Hitler’s Atlantic Wall and raise the flag upon the rampart of fortress Europa the Allies would be assembling the most complicated international alliance, delivered via the most numerous littoral fleet, to assault the most heavily defended coastline, with the largest amphibious force ever uniformed, supported by the most numerous air-force ever to have taken flight.

All to defeat the most dangerous enemy we have ever known.

One heckuva case of The Mondays… And, of course, like so many things, the invasion was completely dependent upon the predictions of a meteorologist.

Second Lieutenant William J. McCormick, 01295577, was one such soldier. My Grandmother relates his story to me: Her uncle, a paratrooper, landed with the 101st Airborne Division in France before dawn on that momentous day.
 “Red” McCormick, as his buddies called him, died defending a bridge against an armored counter-attack as the sun set on the Norman countryside. He was 22 years old, his birthday was June 6th.
In the end, it happened on a Tuesday. No one ever read the note General Eisenhower penciled while entertaining his darkest despair as history has written the victory of Operation Overlord into the books.
I say “Happy DDay,” not to celebrate the carnage of that day but to venerate the colossal undertaking and achievement of so many men and women 71 years ago. 332 of those men and women are honored at our memorial on Lake Arlington.
I never knew Red. The only two things we have in common, that I can be sure of, are some genetics and that I was, once, also a 22-year-old Second Lieutenant. From his sacrifice I gather strength in the understanding that nothing is impossible, if we can overcome Hitler’s Atlantic Wall – together we can accomplish anything we set ourselves to. 

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@USArmy @USNavy @WWIImuseum @dday7 @DDayMuseumUK Remember the #heroes of #DDAY at www.wanderlost.today