USAF weather operators paid belated tribute in an Oct. 6 ceremony to an Army Air Forces combat weatherman for his heroic service during the D-Day invasion of France, June 6, 1944. As an 18-year old Army draftee, Eugene Levine became a combat weather observer aboard gliders with the 82nd Airborne Division. On D-Day, he played a vital role in getting communications equipment to the division. Presiding over the ceremony was Brig. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem, who gave Levine an American flag and a 60th anniversary D-Day medallion. Both items had been carried by 7th Weather Squadron’s SSgt. John Lee, who parachuted into St. Mere Eglise, France, in a 2004 re-enactment of D-Day’s airborne attack.
The U.S. military struck over 1,000 targets on the first day of its air campaign aimed at decimating Iranian military capabilities and disclosed what it said was the massive amount of firepower used in the opening 24 hours of Operation Epic Fury,