Probably all of you have seen this famous photo of a GI hugging Omaha Beach for cover on June 6th, 1944. For more than sixty years he remained unidentified. His name is Huston S. Riley, who was a PFC with the First Infantry Division, who came ashore with the first wave on Fox Green Beach that morning.
He now lives on Mercer Island..a suburb of Seattle Washington. Ever since this story broke in 2007 I have been meaning to write him a letter to thank him and the other men he served with for what they did for our country and for the people of Europe. Since he lives here in Washington state it was not difficult to find his mailing address, so after I went through the mental process of "should I or shouldn't I" try to contact him I decided a short letter would probably not be invading his privacy. I also squirreled up the courage to ask him for a signed copy of that famous photograph, and just 4 days later (today) I received a happy surprise in my mailbox, which I am sharing with you now 🙂
Awesome, Jim!! Thanks for sharing 
God bless those heroes who suffered and died, for plain folks, like you and me.
War is a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.
That's very neat! I remember seeing that article in WWII Magazine.
I just found this link: http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/2443/FaceInTheSurf.html?sequence=2
Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
That is just fantastic. It never hurts to ask, and you proved that true.
What a wonderful treasure. It sounds like he was very pleased to hear from you. AMEN!!
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
One more. This was a link from the first link above.
Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Hi Folks,
Glad you liked the post. I did manage to screw up one more thing besides double posting: His nickname is "Hu" , not "Hi". I misread his handwriting. Oh boy..... 
Dogdaddy 1
Screw-ups happen all the time. The difference is those of us who admit to those screw-ups. So for that you get two more gold stars. Trust me, M1 has a few screw-ups under her belt too!
BTW, I FIXED the post title for you!
:armata_PDT_01:
Marion J Chard
Proud Daughter of Walter 'Monday' Poniedzialek
540th Combat Engineer - H&S Company
Screw-ups happen all the time. The difference is those of us who admit to those screw-ups. So for that you get two more gold stars. Trust me, M1 has a few screw-ups under her belt too!
BTW, I FIXED the post title for you!
MUCH OBLIGED M1! 
Dogdaddy 1
I was looking through here and found this. How cool! I want one, don't give me ideas!