With the anniversary of D-Day this Thursday, Lest We Forget is making the final plans for its D-Day reenactment planned at Tiscornia Beach in St. Joseph for later this month.
Group President Larry Wozniak tells us the big day will be June 22. Activities will start at 9 a.m. with music and a parachute demonstration. Then the German command reenactors will inspect the battlefield, and the battle will get underway at 10 a.m.
“Starting with planes flying overhead, and then we’ll have pyrotechnics that’ll be in the sand on Tiscornia, so it’ll look like the bombs are going off and the machine guns striping at the same time,” Wozniak said. “That happens at Saturday 10 a.m. And then we have seven World War II boats, four Higgins boats, two Buffaloes and one duck that will bring reenactors off Lake Michigan onto the shore.”
Wozniak says there will also be a flamethrower demonstration, stories from World War II, and a Pacific Theater battle reenactment at 1 p.m.
All of this takes quite a lot of people and planning.
“We’ve got about 75 to 80 volunteers right now that are signed up. We could probably use a few more, but we’ll make it doable. We’ve got a couple weeks to go. We’ve been working at it for almost a year.”
The cost has come in at just under $90,000.
Wozniak says after the battle reenactments at Tiscornia Beach, events that weekend will move to the Southwest Michigan Regional Airport. They will include educational displays and helicopter rides. Everything will be free to the public, except the helicopter rides.
Wozniak says for the battle reenactments, the parking lot at Tiscornia Beach will be closed and people can park at nearby lots on Momany Drive. From there, a shuttle will take them to Tiscornia.
Wozniak notes some World War II veterans are coming into town for the weekend, including one man who’s 106.
All are invited to witness the reenactments and learn some history.
Photo: pyrotechnics are tested in preparation for the Lest We Forget event.
