It’s been more than 80 years since the last World War. But the memories are still fresh for some.
Tallassee resident and almost centenarian Harry Jackson made a recent donation to bring the Normandy Invasion in France to Tallassee. Jackson, 99, of Tallassee, donated the commissioning pennant that flew over his ship in the waters off of France to the Tallassee Falls Museum by way of Nebraska.
The pennant is placed on the main mast of a ship when it is put into service and taken down when it is worn or the ship is decommissioned.
“On the second day of the invasion of Normandy, our executive officer had the commissioning pennant replaced,” Jackson said. “He put the old one, the one that flew over our heads in his foot locker to bring home as a souvenir.
Jackson served on six different Navy ships and said his time with executive officer Marion C. Bonham from Nebraska was the best. The officer returned home after the war to his job as a banker. Jackson returned to be a banker in Tallassee. After 40 years, he wrote Bonham informing him he too was a banker.
“As soon as he received my letter, he called me on the phone and we had a nice chat,” Jackson said. “He advised that he was going to sell his bank and retire. He said that he was going to do some traveling and would put Tallassee on his route.”
In the spring of 1992, Bonham made good on his word and visited Jackson and his wife in Tallassee.
“On his return to Nebraska, he wrote to thank us for our hospitality and to tell me he was in possession of the commissioning pennant,” Jackson said. “He said that he had not done anything with it and thought that I might like to have it.”
Jackson recently donated the pennant to allow others to see it and learn about the Normandy invasion and WWII. It will be displayed among other artifacts at the Tallassee Falls Museum or Barnett Boulevard in downtown Tallassee. Almost all the artifacts have been donated by local residents. Some of the displays show a time when only Native Americans were in the area. Others feature a history of the mills. Some of the displays feature the contributions of area residents to the wars and conflicts from around the world.
Jackon’s pennant is far from new.
“(It) is soiled and grimey from diesel smoke and some gun smoke,” Jackson said. “It is tattered and frayed from being whipped by the winds of the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea and the English Channel but it is one of my most prized possessions.”