Some people never give up and 89-year-old British Royal Navy vet Bernard Jordan is one of them.
Aches, pains and missing out on an accredited tour with the Royal British Legion because he made his request too late didn’t stop vet Jordan from making his way to France for the 70th anniversary of D-Day landings.
There’s always the bus and that’s just what he took.
It was straight out of the movies they used to make when Mr. Jordan deftly slipped out of The Pines nursing home in the town of Hove in Sussex, England, hiding his war medals under a jacket.
War medals are meant to be worn, and no better place to wear them than at the 70th anniversary of D-Day landings.
Worried staff members at The Pines, who thought Mr. Jordan was MIA, called the police, Thursday when he didn’t return from his regular morning walk to town. (Fox News June 6, 2014)
Spry, full of charm, and exceedingly young at heart, Mr. Jordan has no trouble making new friends.
So it should have been no surprise when, after a 12 -hour search, the home received a call from a younger veteran who had met Jordan on the bus and said he was safe. The two vets were at a hotel in Ouistreham, Normandy, where world leaders and veterans from all over the world were marking the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The missing vet, who is a former Hovis Mayor is known to many, including the police. But in this case, police know a certain someone as a hero.
"We have spoken to the veteran who called the home today and are satisfied that the pensioner is fine and that his friends are going to ensure he gets back to Hove safely over the next couple of days, after the D-Day celebrations finish," a Sussex Police spokesman said in the Sky report.
Hove police posted its support on Twitter Friday. “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"’ read the tweet.
But Mr. Jordan, who missed his Royal Legion connection to get there, is at the D-Day celebrations with the blessing of the nursing home.
"Mr. Jordan has full capacity, which means that he can come and go from the home as he pleases, which he does on most days” Peter Curtis, chief executive of Gracewell Healthcare told the BBC.
Les Hamilton, another former mayor of Hove who knows Jordan, told the BBC the vet had attended the 50th and 60th memorial services in Normandy.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
