Valentine's Day at Normandy Beach: ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

By Chris Hull

This book expresses my Father's role in D-Day and his missions. In many cases, the letters were typed in foxholes and other defensive positions. David Valentine Hull was a cracker-jack soldier, who earned one silver star and three bronze stars, while meeting the Nazis where they were which led to their ultimate demise. This collection of memories gives one a taste of World War II and a glimpse of those times which made America great.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684561421

Book preview

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Valentine's Day at Normandy Beach

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

Chris Hull

Copyright © 2019 Chris Hull

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2019

ISBN 978-1-68456-143-8 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-68456-142-1 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Photographs of the 314th Infantry in Action

Obituary

Resolution

The Letters

About the Editor - Christopher Bynum Hull

All things being equal, one needs to share life’s experiences (as if they were precious gems) and life’s ebbs and flows (as if they were cherished visions) to acknowledge a spirit among us that cannot be controlled or observed. This position will be addressed throughout the book but not in a lengthy format. Our actions and reactions, however, support life’s outcomes.

My situation in life, as it stands, has been determined by the grace of God and those who have stood with me. My life has remained outside the boundaries of probability. My life has stretched the borders of possibility.

This book is a statement of purely factual information from the original documents of record, which are letters quoted verbatim with the exception of an occasional letter, word, or phrase that has not escaped Father Time’s eraser, i.e., aged paper or faded ink. One encounters certain unexpected detours due to the idioms from that time, and this fact has not been lost in this book. Your own conclusions can be drawn regarding the authenticity of these letters contained at the end. You may even decide to read the letters first. That’s your call.

My duty is to report the facts just as a news reporter presents the facts of any investigation to be addressed. In the television show Dragnet, Joe Friday, an investigative detective, would say to a witness that he needed the facts, just the facts. In this book, these are the facts to be considered in making a judgment before drawing a conclusion.

One determination is that the patriots of D-Day went far above and beyond the call of duty. David Hull cast his shadow on the war by exercising his abilities as a player and a crackerjack soldier to meet the Nazis on their grounds in taking the war to and from them. In his opinion, his awards (3 bronze stars and 1 silver star) were applicable to all members, men and women, of the allied invasion.

The letters chosen in this publication are unadulterated grammar from the original source. A poetic license is not necessary to embellish this text. These letters tell the story of thousands of U.S. citizens who participated in numerous fearful encounters with the German army and are also stories within themselves.

Life’s circumstances have given me the time to record for future generations some of the incredible tasks of D-Day. The preparation, the execution, the conclusion, and the aftermath on world history are shared in this publication. God’s grace has given me a vision in sharing these facts.

From 2007 to 2017, I worked with others to fulfill the emotional and spiritual needs of the elderly patients who suffered many age-related ailments in their walk of life. Their lives were depleted, and their quality of life was reduced only to a shadow of their former selves. It is the extension of care for the less fortunate that brings life into focus and makes life delightfully fulfilling!

In the year 2018, I find myself on a new quest to provide comfort, encouragement, and hope to the elderly in a slightly different manner by presenting my testimony of God’s grace in my life, along with Brenda Haney who shares her love for the Lord in song. We couple our life’s experiences together to minister to the homeless and to others in nursing homes, assisted living, and church functions throughout the week for God’s glory.

I have been blessed by the company of Reverend Robbins and Reverend Greene, both ordained Episcopal ministers. They have displayed theological skills beyond understanding during my association with them. These individuals have participated with thousands of family members in life and death decisions over decades of service to Christ.

In this 11-year time period of service, I grew in spiritual stature at St. Barnabas Nursing Home and Siskin Hospital. This has led me down a path of lay ministry accredited by the University of the South’s School of Theology. This position is a shadow of an ordained minister’s responsibilities, a drop in the bucket; but it has given me thousands of hours of enjoyment and experience in conveying Jesus’ message to all ears attuned to His Word.

My qualifications include my own personal experience in 1973 of being declared dead for 20 minutes at the scene of a motorcycle accident, then revived, only to be declared DOA at Erlanger Hospital 40 minutes later. Remaining in a coma several weeks, I experienced the after effects of brain damage from multiple fractures to my skull. Along with the trauma of a head injury, I experienced multiple fractures to my right shoulder, arm, and leg. Other health concerns resulting from this accident were partial paralysis of my right side of my body including drop-foot palsy, double vision, a lack of dexterity with my right hand, the elimination of a rotator cuff in my right shoulder, and the ongoing issue of balance. The combination of these injuries required 4 surgeries that failed to correct the problem of double vision.

In approximately 2 years, I regained most of the use of my paralyzed vocal chords. I also regained some motor skills to my right hand and to the right side of my body. I had my right Achilles’ tendon lengthened to relieve an exaggerated plantar flexion to my right foot. Another operation involved my third, fourth, and fifth metatarsals on my right foot when the third, fourth, and fifth distal and medial metatarsals were each fused together separately to prevent my foot from rolling over. This procedure failed and resulted in having a triple--the fusion of the third, fourth, and fifth proximal tarsals to help prevent my right foot from rolling over due to a lack of motor control of the muscles in my right foot. All said and done, the doctors determined later that I had lost 60-percent of the neurological function of the motor nerves (nerves that cause motion in the muscles or tendons of the body’s right side) and the previous operations were archaic in the world of modern medicine.

The impairment of motor nerves on the right side of my body has resulted in three full-length tears of my left rotator cuff caused from falls due to a lack of coordination; and later assessments revealed the complete absence of my rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I could go on and on about the missed diagnosis of my original injuries, but this paperwork would not be relevant to this book. In addition to these injuries, a disconnected bicep tendon in my left shoulder has occurred due to lifting heavy objects. The crippling effects of 13 surgeries on my right leg, 3 surgeries on my left eye, 2 surgeries to remove cancer, 1 surgery on the wrong eye, and 2 surgeries on my right knee have taken a toll on my body. Also, I have had a total right knee replacement due to the fact that, over the past forty-five years, I have worn away the cartilage in my right knee which has caused me to fall down unpredictably for at least two years. This has meant an unending recovery for forty-five years and counting that only intelligent people might be able to understand. In one case, I was able to advise scrub nurses that they were shaving the wrong leg just minutes before succumbing to anesthesia. These physical hurdles are only the tip of a larger medical iceberg encountered that seemingly has no end in sight, but I have learned to move forward instead of backward regardless of others’ opinions. There is a responsibility to praise God for the outcome of my motorcycle accident, the hope of His mercy provided to all believers, and to bless those who lack understanding.

My life’s allegiance to God continues to grow as I minister to the elderly, the poor, the homeless, and other lost souls in many locations throughout the City of Chattanooga. This faithfulness allows me freedom to share different messages that are personal and communal: personal in my ability to adjust my message to fit in a given situation and communal in the horizons God offers in Christ’s church. These acquired conditions over the past forty-five years have resulted in an increased faith.

First of all, faith is the task of an individual to find a place of spiritual readjustment in their lives. Second, the church, God’s kingdom, is a counterbalance to a communal society that weighs needs differently. Faith in God offers balance amidst the rapid changes in society and gives a spiritual order to life’s priorities. These preferences require a trust in God’s pledge that never changes and are as sure as day and night. Jesus’ rule for discipleship in today’s ministry in and of faith is part of an equation to better understand the totality of this book. The variables to this equation include love, mercy, forgiveness, understanding, and kindness. An infinite number of formulas yield the same equivalencies for humanity.

As the editor of this book, my job is to envision David Valentine Hull’s perspective of war, the landscape of the