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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Can’t Keep a Good Man Down

Can’t Keep a Good Man Down

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Britain D-Day Intrepid Veteran

I love this:

An 89-year old World War II veteran who was reported missing from a nursing home in England has been found in Normandy after traveling to attend D-Day commemorations, police said Friday.

Bernard Jordan was last seen at The Pines home in Hove, southern England, on Thursday morning. Staff called police when he did not return that evening.

Sussex Police said Friday that another veteran later called to say he and Jordan were at a hotel in Ouistreham, France. Officers also spoke to Jordan and determined he was fine.

The force said Jordan left the home wearing his service medals and joined a group of veterans heading to France by bus.

There really is nothing better than a cantankerous old guy who just doesn’t give a shit what you think or care about your rules. Reminds me of this Patton Oswalt skit.

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have seen this story in a few places today, and I love it harder every time! This guy is just a nice old honey badger, and I hope the British media turn him into a national hero (they are showing every sign of it so far, so that’s a good thing).

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    The photo at the top of the thread makes me happy. I like it almost as much as the Jump, you FUCKERS! photo, and that’s saying a lot.

    Edit: I love how proud and feisty he looks.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My old man was consumed by rules and would never have broken one. My Uncles Walt and Alex on the other hands…. I don’t think they ever saw a rule they didn’t break. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the only reason neither got kicked out of the Army or the Navy was because they needed the cannon fodder too much.

  9. 9.

    HRA

    Love this man and the effort he made to go to Normandy. I read his story on BBC moments before I came here and shared it to FB.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I don’t know if the queen ever visits anyone, but that would be really cool. I find this guy’s spirit really inspiring.

  16. 16.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Former Mayor of Hove (actually), which is what that photo is showing.

    At very least, HMQ ought to invite him to a garden party.

  20. 20.

    shelley

    At very least, HMQ ought to invite him to a garden party.

    You used to get three sandwiches; these days, only two.

  21. 21.

    Violet

    @scav: OMG, that is AWESOME! Look at those gorgeous women hanging on him. Looks like he’s having a great time.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @scav:

    Prior to embarking, Mr Jordan told ITV News: “I have been here last year and I have been here obviously this time… but if I am still about I shall try next year’s as well.”

    Asked if he would be in trouble when he returned home, he added: “I might be, but I hope not.”

    Ship’s liaison officer Sonia Pittam, who met Mr Jordan on his way to France, said: “I knew he was a game old boy.

    “He certainly has his wits about him, he didn’t say much about the landings, just how pleased he was to be on board and couldn’t believe how everyone was looking after them [veterans] and all the people waving on the route to the harbour entrance.

    “He kept saying, ‘All this for us’.”

    I think I may have a crush on this older gentleman.

    Edit: okay, maybe not a crush. He seems sweet, and quite the gentleman, which reminds me of my dad.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly: Tho I guess I should mention the time on Okinawa after the war when their co-pilot lost a jeep over a cliff while on a date with a nurse (while they were playing “Whoopie” the jeep went “Whoopsie!”) and they all flew back down to Saipan on a “training mission” so they could steal a jeep and hoist it into the bomb bay for the flight back and turn that one in.

    Those are the kind of “war” stories I heard from my old man. The times their plane got all shot up, or crash landed on Iwo or they were told to bail out over Tokyo Bay, or he climbed into an open bomb bay at 30,000 feet, etc etc…. I didn’t here about them until after the 50 year reunion and the old man couldn’t make it because he was too sick to travel so his crewmates made a video of their reminiscences and sent it to him.

    For some reason, I’ve only watched it once. Not sure why.

  24. 24.

    Violet

    @WaterGirl:
    Also from that article:

    Brighton and Hove police had tweeted: “90 year old veteran reported missing from care home. Turns out they’d said no to him going to #DDay70 but he went anyway #fightingspirit”

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    The only thing that would have made this story even better is if he and the Queen had sneaked off together after the ceremony to a little local bistro and done shots of calvados for the rest of the afternoon.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    She does, but her personal visits are all very carefully choreographed months and months in advance. More likely that someone like Prince Harry might try to arrange a visit. I can really see this story totally appealing to his own sense of humour, and it would probably be simpler for him to set it up than the Queen (who in any case is really cutting back on her official duties these days).

  31. 31.

    Sir Laffs-a-Lot

    He and Cole must be related; tell Shawn to make sure JC doesn’t leave wearing his medals.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I seriously used to make those phone calls from my house with my friends when I was 13. We thought we were so funny!!!

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    Yup, your comment was one of the several I saw this afternoon about Mr. Jordan. It may even have been the first one i saw, i honestly can’t remember now. A couple of sites put it up on FB, and I assume it has also been trending on the Twitters.

    Cole is sometimes a couple of hours late to these discussions, but it’s all good because now we have a dedicated thread and can talk about things like how cool it would be if Jordan and Her Madge snuck off to a bistro for the afternoon.

  41. 41.

    lamh36

    Reminds me of a story my mom used to tell about my grandmother Beulah (RIP). My mom is the oldest of a total of 10 children. My mom the oldest at 55 and my aunt being the youngest at 45. They all lived in a 4 bedroom, housing complex in NOLA, and as you can guess it was a tight fit.

    So one day my mom and her sibling must have been getting on her nerves. My mom was 16 I think and my youngest aunt was 6 or 7. So they were all running round house driving my maman (say it in NOLA french) crazy. Well she had, had enough. One minute, my momma said “moot” (that’s what we called her) was there and next thing you know she wasn’t. They searched the house and couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. My mom and her siblings went around the neighborhood looking for her and they swear they went door to door

    They had the rest of the neighborhood families in the complex looking for her at least 2 hours, when one of my uncles shouted “there she is!!!”. My uncle Dice was pointing at the local bus that passed in front of the house and there was my maman sitting on the bus. She had gotten so aggravated with them, that she just got on the bus and basically rode back and forward on the same route talking and chatting with the bus driver and other riders.

    My maman told me that she knew they were looking for her but she didn’t care, she needed a break from the crazy and she didn’t want to go too far, so she just rode that bus until she was ready to get off. My mom and siblings still laugh about that til this day.

    I miss my granny.

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    Holy cow-ski, batman. 10 kids in 10 years. wow.

    Edit: my mom’s mom had 13 pregnancies, but only 7 kids, the rest were stillborn. They were poor folk in Wyoming and I guess that’s how it went back then.

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    @WaterGirl: My mother is the oldest, 55. Next sibling, my aunt, 54. Next siblings a set of boy girl twins, next sibling a boy, next sibling, a 2nd set of 2 twin boys born on same day as 1 set of girl/boy twins just 1 year later, next sibling a boy, then one final set of boy/girl twins.

    So in total: 4 single births, 3 twin births (2 boy/girl combo, 1 boy/boy combo who share a birthday with 1 set of boy/girl twins)

    Got that… ;-)

  45. 45.

    Lurking Canadian

    The entire Wehrmacht couldn’t keep this guy off the beach. Of course a few overworked nursing home aides aren’t going to manage.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    Maddow is reporting this story.

    she showed a picture of him on the way back to England, surrounded by young women on the ferry!

    LOL

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @lamh36: I miss both of mine. They were completely different, but both awesome in their own ways. If I had do sum up one the main differences between them, I would do it this way: If I went on a multi-state killing spree and ashed one them to hide me, he each would have said yes and done it. They would have had different thoughts as they did so: one would have thought, “Well, he is a vicious murderer but he is my grand son and I love him.”; the other would have thought, “They obviously needed killing or he wouldn’t have done it.”

    ETA: I was lucky that all of my grandparents lived long enough that I knew then as an adult. I didn’t lose the first until I was 26 and I lost the last when I was 48.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattR:

    I do remember that story. It was a couple of years ago, and must have been a delightful surprise to the young couple.

    Still, I have to wonder how truly spontaneous it was from the Queen’s perspective. I just have a sense that her secretaries and schedulers and ladies-in-waiting would have vetted everything pretty carefully before HM went walkabout.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    I was also lucky that way. My maternal grandmother was 94 when she died (I was 44, and had grown up in the same household as her) (as she, but that just sounds stupid, so I’m going with as her), and my father’ smother was just shy of her 99th birthday; I was 45 or 46. Didn’t know her as well — I was pretty little when she left Chicago to join my father in Atlanta, and by the time I moved down here, she was, if not in full-blown dementia, at least getting pretty wispy around the edges. But I loved them both and I wish they were still around.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Hell, I knew two of my great grandmothers one of whom was the daughter of a Civil War vet. It always amazes me that I, who was born in 1964, knew someone who knew someone who fought in a war 100 years before I was born.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    My paternal great-grandfather, who died when I was maybe 4, fought in both the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. According to family lore, he lied about his age both times. I remember him vaguely.

    I also remember my maternal great-grandfather, but oddly, I have no idea whether he fought in any wars for which he might have been eligible. He was a railroad man all his life, and it may be that he was in some kind of necessary industry and was exempt. I just don’t know.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just caught the last of Rachel (radio only), and she revisited the Bernard Jordan story with an update on his return journey and the four lovely attendants.

    Then I switched over to BBC and they are also making a deal of it. I think this gentleman is going to thoroughly enjoy his 15 minutes of fame, and well-deserved!

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @SiubhanDuinne: More power to him. A couple of years ago, some guy in his late 80s shot up the Holocaust Museum in DC and my grandmother, who was around the guy’s age at the time, abhorred what he had done but also had a perverse pride in the fact that a guy her age was capable of doing it.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yep. And do I care? Neither 30 nor 40 bothered me, so I don’t expect 50 to do so. I know what year I was born, and I can do simple arithmetic. A friend and mentor from years ago used to say, “You are only young once,but you can be immature forever.”

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Did you see that MomSense may have a line on your Rose song? It’s the last comment in the “so that happened” thread.

    It would be so cool if she found that for you.

  63. 63.

    Fred

    The gentleman probably told someone he was going to France for D-Day and they nodded, smiled and said, “Mm hmm, that’s nice.”

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