The Day 75 years ago today

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019

NEW LONDON www.theday.com $1.50

VOL. 137, NO. 340 40 PAGES

REMEMBERING D-DAY: JUNE 6, 1944
“Although I would give anything to be back with you, I have not
yet had any wish at all to back down from the job we have to do.”

“The heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives
will never be forgotten.”

BRITISH CAPT. NORMAN SKINNER TO HIS WIFE, JUNE 3, 1944

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, JUNE 5, 2019

A Final Rendezvous With History
Dwindling survivors
of invasion receive
thanks from queen
By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

Portsmouth, England — Queen Elizabeth II and world leaders including
U.S. President Donald Trump gathered Wednesday on the south coast
of England to honor the troops who
risked and sacrificed their lives 75
years ago on D-Day, a bloody but ultimately triumphant turning point in
World War II.
Across the Channel, American and
British paratroopers dropped into
northwestern France and scaled cliffs
beside Normandy beaches, recreating the daring, costly invasion that
helped liberate Europe from Nazi occupation.
With the number of veterans of
World War II dwindling, the guests of
honor at an international ceremony in
Portsmouth were several hundred men,
now in their 90s, who served in the conflict — and the 93-year-old British monarch, also a member of what has been
called the “greatest generation.”
The queen, who served as an army
mechanic during the war, said that
when she attended a 60th-anniversary commemoration of D-Day 15 years
ago, many thought it might be the
last such event.
“But the wartime generation — my
generation — is resilient,” she said,
striking an unusually personal note.
“The heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives will
never be forgotten,” the monarch
said. “It is with humility and pleasure, on behalf of the entire country
— indeed the whole free world —
that I say to you all, thank you.”
Several hundred World War II veterans, aged 91 to 101, attended the
ceremony in Portsmouth, the English
port city from where many of the
troops embarked for Normandy on
June 5, 1944.
Many will recreate their journey,
with less danger and more comfort,
by crossing the Channel by ship to
Normandy overnight. They are due
to attend commemorations today in
Bayeux, the first major town liberated by Allied troops after D-Day.
SEE COMMEMORATION  PAGE A7

LOUIS WEINTRAUB/POOL PHOTO VIA AP, FILE

Members of an American landing unit help their comrades ashore during the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944. The men reached the zone
code-named Utah Beach, near Sainte-Mère-Église, on a life raft after their landing craft was hit and sunk by German coastal defenses.

Army chaplain broke new ground by parachuting with troops
‘Jumping Jesus’ was
part of the invasion
By JULIA BERGMAN
Day Staff Writer

East Lyme — Seventy-five years ago,
Raymond Hall was among the first to
parachute down on France on D-Day.
But the story of how Hall, an Episcopalian priest, ended up jumping
out of the plane that led the main airborne invasion on D-Day begins with
an assignment at Fort Benning, Ga.,
where Army paratroopers trained.
Hall, of Lynn, Mass., enlisted in the
U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, and in Janu-

ary 1942 was assigned to the Parachute
School at Fort Benning. More than
8,000 men were part of the Chaplain
Corps during World War II, serving as
spiritual leaders and advisers to various military units, but also as soldiers.
Shortly after arriving at Fort Benning, Hall was asked by those going
through paratrooper training whether he was going to jump too. His reply,
“of course,” was intended as a joke,
but he soon learned the men expected
him to do just that.
COURTESY OF THE HALL FAMILY
Hall went to the commander of
Raymond Hall, from his time as an
the 101st Airborne, Gen. William. C. Army chaplain.
Lee, to ask permission. He argued

that there would come a day when a
chaplain would be needed on the battlefield, and that he’d be better at advising the men if he went through the
same experience they did.
“It was tough to communicate
because he didn’t know what they
were going through, so he decided if
he was going to be effective, he had
to do the same thing they did,” his
son, Raymond S. “Pete” Hall, 83, of
Niantic, recalled in an interview last
week.
Lee told Hall there was no requirement that chaplains undergo paraSEE HALL  PAGE A7

2019 CONNECTICUT LEGISLATURE

Environmentalists tout measures
on offshore wind, plastic bags, solar
By BENJAMIN KAIL
Day Staff Writer

Hartford — Environmental groups
on Wednesday touted several measures soon to hit Gov. Ned Lamont's
desk, including a major push to compete for offshore wind, a phased ban
on notoriously nonbiodegradable
single-use plastic bags and an extension of net metering, which compensates people with rooftop solar

systems at retail rates for power they
feed into the grid.
By 2030, Connecticut will rely on at
least 2,000 megawatts of electricity
from offshore wind farms, with Lamont expected to sign legislation long
pushed by renewable energy advocates and unanimously backed by the
state Senate as the 2019 legislative
session closed Wednesday night.
SEE PLASTIC  PAGE A3

Built to last?

“This 11th hour proposal
has not been fully vetted
or reviewed, and ... it’s
not in the public’s best
interest. ... Instead of
resolving outstanding
litigation, it puts the
state at increased and
immediate litigation risk
from multiple parties.”
MARIBEL LA LUZ, GOV. LAMONT’S
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR,
ON BRIDGEPORT CASINO PITCH

WEATHER
Today, cloudy with a t-storm possible. High 74. Friday, partly sunny
and pleasant. High 74. B8

INDEX
Classified/C6
Comics/B5
Editorials/A6
Nation/A2
Obituaries/C3
Police logs/C2

JENS BUETTNER/DPA VIA AP

Sculptors work on the “Largest Sandcastle in the World”
at the Sand Sculpture Festival in Binz on the island of
Ruegen, Germany, on Tuesday.

Public notices/C6
Puzzles/C8
Region/C1
Sports/B1
Television/B6
World/A2

Lamont administration says pitch by
Ganim for casino ‘a really bad deal’
By MARK PAZNIOKAS
The Connecticut Mirror

If lawmakers attempted to speed
Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim’s
casino bill though the General Assembly Wednesday night in the final
hours of the 2019 session, they likely
would have faced opposition from
Gov. Ned Lamont, whose chief of staff
bluntly called the terms unacceptable.

Ganim was at the State Capitol until nearly midnight Tuesday, pitching
legislation necessary to consummate
a deal he struck with the tribal owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino and
Mohegan Sun to bring a casino to
Bridgeport. He met with legislative
leaders and the governor’s top aides.
“He wanted to explain the deal he
made with the tribes,” said Ryan DraSEE PITCH  PAGE A3

NEW LONDON SCHOOLS
LOOK FOR NEW LEADERSHIP

TRUMP: PROGRESS TO STAVE
OFF TARIFFS ‘NOT ENOUGH’

New London — The New London school
district plans to bring in new hires for the top
leadership positions at Bennie Dover Jackson
Middle School and New London High School,
the superintendent announced Wednesday.
School Superintendent Cynthia Ritchie intends to make a host of changes to administrative roles in the school district, part of
a planned restructuring approved in the
budget earlier this year.
New London High School Principal William
“Tommy” Thompson is being shifted to a new
position heading secondary-level curriculum,
instruction and assessment. Alison Burdick,
the former principal at Bennie Dover Jackson
Middle School and more recently the director
of the International Education magnet program, was named Director of Adult Education.
See C1

Washington — Straining to stave off
threatened U.S. tariffs, Mexican and American officials claimed progress in White
House talks late Wednesday, but President
Donald Trump declared it was “not nearly
enough” to halt the import taxes he is holding out as a way to force Mexico to stanch
the flow of illegal migrants at America’s
southern border.
Underscoring the scope of the border
problem, the Department of Homeland Security announced separately that U.S. Border
Patrol apprehensions of migrants illegally
crossing the border hit the highest level in
more than a decade in May: 132,887 apprehensions, including a record 84,542 adults
and children together, 36,838 single adults
and 11,507 children traveling alone.
See A2