On this day in 1944, Gen. Eisenhower gave his D-Day orders to Lt. Wallace Strobel of Saginaw, Michigan—captured in a now-iconic photo turned postage stamp.
TRANSCRIPT
Today marks D-Day, the Allies incursion to France on this day in 1944. In a now-famous photograph, which has since become of US postal stamp, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the order “Full victory – nothing else” to the hundred and first Airborne Division. Specifically, he was speaking to First Lieutenant Wallace Strobel. When Eisenhower asked Strobel where he was from, the Lieutenant answered Saginaw, Michigan. “Oh yes, Michigan.” said the future president. “Great fishing there. I like it.”
While seventeen hundred fellow men from his hundred and first Airborne Division would perish during the war. Wallace Strobel survived for many decades before passing in 1999, fifty-five years after D-Day, which also happened to be the day after his 22nd birthday.
And that is your Michigan Minute.