To think this DDay veteran is a total legend

[Mrsdavidcaruso]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-27735086

No idea why the care home said he couldn't go, but he seems to be safe and well.

good for him I say

I think he's brilliant.
It saddened me when I read 'he wasn't allowed' to attend.
Hoping he has many more visits ahead of him.

Given the quite important 70th celebrations I'd think the RBL had more pressing matters than to try and corroborate, or not, some fairly flowery reporting.

TSS so do I that's why we will never get the full story - still it doesn't matter he went thats the most important thing

and Limited this statement means that he would have planned it and not left it to the last minute

The memorial services meant a lot to him. He clearly didn't want to miss what might be his last one."

Give him a gong in the next honours list.

It is possible that th RBL - or some other military benevolent organisation - has been working extremely hard to find him an 11th hour seat on a crossing to Normandy in time.

Good on him. They obviously dident try hard enough too get this gentleman to D Day celebrations. Well done sir!

I hope that the extensive coverage of the D-Day commemoration events has brought home to people that you don't sink into a vegetative stupor just because you've lived for a long time.

Most of the veterans being interviewed and taking part are in their v. late eighties and nineties and are bright, articulate, full of stories and memories and a pleasure to listen to. These are individuals who have lived full lives, and gone through experiences hard for us to imagine. One ex-paratrooper actually undertook a parachute jump with a co-jumper, and I believe he was 89!

It's a sad shame that more elderly people aren't encouraged to carry on living their lives, while their faculties allow. Too many are just written off and left to live out their last years waiting to die. Our elderly citizens deserve more.

Here, here.

Or is it hear, hear?

Great story. Good on him. It sounds like some of his mates or someone he knew organised the trip on the coach and the hotel etc.

This story lifts the spirits. Chances are the care home wasn't that obstructive but maybe not that dogged either. Why not just enjoy the story and applaud the man? Perhaps not a day to be petty.

Totally agree Molio Let's give him the well earned respect.

oh he is a star, so glad he got there
he is local to me and I wish there was something I could do for him.

Whilst wholeheartedly applauding and celebrating the ingenuity of this veteran, it makes me feel sad for all the other veterans in care homes, or elsewhere, who might have wanted and been able to attend commemorations in France or even just locally, but never had the option. And indeed for all those elderly people wanting to do things before it's too late, in the face of a culture which has as good as decreed that, for them, it already is.

MrsRuff totally agree

More details

"Grounded by staff at his care home, Bernard Jordan faced missing out on an emotional return to the D-Day beaches.

So, summoning up the spirit and determination of June 6, 1944, he hatched a cunning plan to join his old comrades in honouring the fallen.

With his medals hidden under his coat, the 89-year-old told his carers he was off for a walk. Instead he boarded a coach for France."

...

"The mystery was solved when the care home received a phone call from another veteran saying he had met Mr Jordan on a coach on the way to France.

The caller said Mr Jordan would be coming home when he was ready. Police found the story highly amusing and Brighton commander Nev Kemp tweeted: ‘Love this: 89-yr-old veteran reported missing by care home who said he can’t go to Normandy for DDay70 remembrance. We’ve found him there!’

The former Royal Navy officer told ITV tonight that he hoped he would not be in trouble when he returned."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650882/D-Day-veteran-89-reported-missing-care-home-staff-told-travel-France-Normandy-escaping-joining-friends.html#ixzz33tn10P11

Pictures of him on the ferry in the article

Video of him on ITV and he says

'Touch wood I'll try it again next year'

www.itv.com/news/story/2014-06-06/veteran-missing-from-care-home-found-commemorating-d-day-in-normandy/

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650882/D-Day-veteran-89-reported-missing-care-home-staff-told-travel-France-Normandy-escaping-joining-friends.html#ixzz33tmMe6Xs
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I think arrangements for all veterans to go should have been made. There cannot be that many of them left.

Good on him.

"The care home was at pains to stress that Mr Jordan had not been banned from attending the commemorations.

A spokesman for the Pines, which has been named as one of the best in the UK, said their ‘wilful and determined’ resident had been spurred in to action after staff had failed to get him on to the accredited trip with the Royal British Legion.

..

Last night Mr Kemp clarified on Twitter that Mr Jordan had not been banned from going to France.

...

Peter Curtis, chief executive officer of Gracewell Healthcare, which runs the home, said: ‘At no stage was Bernard banned from going to the commemorations.

We are in awe of the part Mr Jordan played in the D-Day invasion 70 years ago.’

Earlier this year, the Pines was judged one of the top 20 homes in the UK in the carehome.co.uk awards, which are based on 20,000 recommendations for homes from residents and their families."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650882/D-Day-veteran-89-reported-missing-care-home-staff-told-travel-France-Normandy-escaping-joining-friends.html#ixzz33ts7O6nM

Mr Jordan, I salute you and your comrades. Twice over

This story just gets better and better

"Steve Tuckwell, director of communications for Brittany Ferries, said that Mr Jordan enjoyed a breakfast of bacon, two fried eggs, sausage, orange juice and coffee during the seven-hour crossing.

He said: "For a 90-year-old man he had a healthy appetite. He's a tremendous fellow, we loved having him on board."

Mr Tuckwell said that Mr Jordan had been adopted as the company's honorary veteran and he would be given free crossings to the D-Day commemorations for the rest of his life. He said that Mr Jordan was found by a member of the crew as he travelled across to France on Thursday.

He said: "He was picked up by one of our staff, the ship's liaison officer, she found him wandering around, she took him under her wing, took him up to the bridge and treated him royally and he won the hearts of the crew.

"We adopted him as an honorary veteran and we will give him free travel to the Normandy beaches for the rest of his life.

"We owe him a huge debt and it was our way of paying him back, he's a marvellous guy."

He added: "We took him under our wing, he's a lovely, lovely guy, when he came off the crew all clapped him."

news.uk.msn.com/care-home-veteran-vows-to-return-2

"and he won the hearts of the crew"

Does this mean (as it does for nearly every Chelsea Pensioner) that he's an incorrigible flirt?

I wish the media weren't casting Bernard Jordan in the role of 'slightly naughty, but resourceful' toddler. He's a grown man, who's survived mortal combat, with a passport. Why shouldn't he go abroad?

Ok, maybe he should have let the care home staff know, but the fact that he failed to mention it to anyone, says an awful lot about the reaction he must have expected.

Patronising, much?
Man wishes to go abroad.
Man makes arrangements.
But let's talk about him like he's 6.

Exactly! But that's the prevailing attitude to most people over 80 who actually still want to, and are able to, live their lives. Especially once they're in care homes, which seem to be viewed as secure units for the elderly.

Yes, people wouldn't be in a care home unless they needed some support. But surely the support should be there to facilitate their remaining as independent as possible, not to limit their horizons any more than old age inevitably does anyway?