{"id":20207,"date":"2010-08-20T17:19:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=20207"},"modified":"2010-08-20T17:39:52","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T21:39:52","slug":"normandy-bagpiper-dies-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=20207","title":{"rendered":"Normandy bagpiper dies at 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Millan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20208\" title=\"Millan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Millan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Millan.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Millan-300x165.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI don&#8217;t know how<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/08\/20\/world\/europe\/20millin.html?no_interstitial\"> this story got by TSO today<\/a> knowing his love for bagpipe music, but Bill Millen the famed bagpiper who was immortalized in the very excellent movie The Longest Day died Wednesday from complications arising from a stroke;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Against orders from World War I that forbade playing bagpipes on the battlefield because of the high risk of attracting enemy fire, Lord Lovat, then 32, asked Private Millin to play on the beachhead to raise morale.<\/p>\n<p>When Private Millin demurred, citing the regulations, he recalled later, Lord Lovat replied: \u201cAh, but that\u2019s the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn\u2019t apply.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After wading ashore in waist-high water that he said caused his kilt to float, Private Millin reached the beach, then marched up and down, unarmed, playing the tunes Lord Lovat had requested, including \u201cHighland Laddie\u201d and \u201cRoad to the Isles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With German troops raking the beach with artillery and machine-gun fire, the young piper played on as his fellow soldiers advanced through smoke and flame on the German positions, or fell on the beach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I remember the scene from the Cornelius Ryan book-based movie had a youthful Sean Connery cast as a private complaining about &#8220;the racket&#8221; from the bagpipes. <\/p>\n<p>Thank you for the small but significant role you played that day, Bill, that day filled to the brim with heroes.<\/p>\n<p>On a tip from anon in the comments a fitting tribute;<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"500\" height=\"333\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/6bLUdfykrQM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/6bLUdfykrQM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>When i leave this world behind me<br \/>\nTo another i will go<br \/>\nIf there are no pipes in heaven<br \/>\nI`ll be going down below<\/p>\n<p>If friends in time be severed<br \/>\nSomeday we will meet again<br \/>\nI`ll return to leave you never<br \/>\nBe a piper to the end<\/p>\n<p>This has been a day to die fo<br \/>\nNow the day has almost gone<br \/>\nUp above a choir of seabirds<br \/>\nTurns to face the setting sun<\/p>\n<p>Now the evening dawn is calling<br \/>\nAnd all the hills are burning red<br \/>\nAnd before the night comes falling<br \/>\nClouds are lined with golden thread<\/p>\n<p>We watched the fires together<br \/>\nShared our quarters for a while<br \/>\nWalked the dusty roads together<br \/>\nCame so many miles<\/p>\n<p>This has been a day to die on<br \/>\nNow the day is almost done<br \/>\nHere the pipes will lay beside me<br \/>\nSilent will the battle drum<\/p>\n<p>If friends in time be severed<br \/>\nSomeday here we will meet again<br \/>\nI return to leave you never<br \/>\nBe a piper to the end<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t know how this story got by TSO today knowing his love for bagpipe music, &hellip; <a title=\"Normandy bagpiper dies at 88\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=20207\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Normandy bagpiper dies at 88<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-skies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}