When actors pass, it’s not major news to me generally. However, Durning, a noted character actor, was a true American hero.
"He was among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.
“They train you to do awful things, then they release you and wonder why you are so bitter and angry,” Durning told USA TODAY in 1994, when he narrated the Discovery Channel’s Normandy: The Great Crusade. “Scars that you have from wounds heal. Scars that you have mentally never heal.”
He was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.
There’s not many of those guys (and women) left… My FIL (2nd wife) followed tanks across North Africa and up the boot… He was a great and humble man… A Tennessee mountain boy that grew up in the same community that I did… GOD bless those guys… Ron
Thank you Will for the info on Mr. Durning. What a gentleman who served his country when called upon. He was a class act in both his personal and public life. This scene from an episode on NCIS, “Call of Silence”, always gets to me.