Obama's Grandfather at War

[bigtree]

This Oct. 26, 1944, photo provided by the Dunham family shows Stanley Armour Dunham, while serving in the U.S. Army somewhere in France during World War II. Dunham, the man whom Barack Obama would one day call Gramps, was a 26-year-old supply sergeant in the Army Air Force when the Allied invasion of Normandy at last began.


from the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Surely, Stanley Dunham was gazing skyward 65 years ago, on D-Day.

Dunham, the man whom Barack Obama would one day call Gramps, was a 26-year-old supply sergeant stationed near the English Channel with the U.S. Army Air Forces when the invasion of Normandy at last began. Six weeks later, he crossed the Channel, too, and followed the Allied front across France. A year later, he was on track to fight in Japan when the atom bomb sent him home instead.

Dunham, who died 17 years ago, was the Kansas-born grandfather with the outsized personality who helped to fill the hole in the future president's life created by the absence of Obama's Kenyan father. Sgt. Dunham's war years have been something of a mystery, the details of dates and places lost with the passage of time. The units that he served in were unknown even to the White House.

But a life-size portrait emerges from interviews and records unearthed by The Associated Press. On D-Day, documents place him at Stoney Cross, England, in the 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Co., Aviation.

"This was the day we had all been waiting for," Dunham's commanding officer wrote the night of June 6 from their base near the English Channel. "Planes by the hundreds took off and landed at our field from dusk until dawn."


read and view more pics here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpNZT-PTwpHmYIZ14NQHA1ddDJxgD98GJ4Q00

[malaise]

1. Barack has his eyes

Thanks for this. :hi:

[bigtree]

2. I thought the chin looked familiar too

:hi:

[ClarkUSA]

3. And his ears/lips. From other photos, you can see that he has Gramps' height/build, too.

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4. Obama's got his head in this one

FILE - This photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., WWII veteran Stanley Armour Dunham playing with his grandson Barack Obama.
(AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign)

[ClarkUSA]

6. I noticed that awhile ago, too. He owes much of his physicality to Gramps, for sure.

Apparently, he owes much of his brilliance and charisma, as well as his resonant voice and speaking style, to his father who was by all accounts, a mesmerizing figure.

[The Straight Story]

5. He doesn't look like he is from Kenya

Do we have his birth certificate? :)

[Pirate Smile]

7. LOL. I was reading through some comments following an article about an interview

Obama's great uncle did. It had a picture. One comment was that it couldn't be Obama's uncle because the guy was white. I'm not sure if they were joking or not. You never can tell because there are just too many ignorant and stupid people running around posting hateful or clueless comments on pretty much every website. :)

[Pirate Smile]

8. Interesting article especially the tidbit about getting kicked out of High School for punching the

principal. I'd like to hear why he did that. :D


By the time he joined the Army, he already had lived large.

He'd been thrown out of his high school in El Dorado, Kan., for punching the principal in the nose. For three years he'd lived off odd jobs, "hopping rail cars to Chicago, then California, then back again, dabbling in moonshine, cards and women," Obama wrote in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father."

Dunham had also fallen in love with a woman from the other side of the tracks — the good side — and married her. He eloped with Madelyn Payne just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, and he was quick to enlist after the Japanese attack.

"He was really gung-ho," remembers Ralph. "He didn't have to go because he was married. He could have held off."

[Odin2005]

9. Wow, Barack certainly looks like Gramps!

:wow:

[FrenchieCat]

10. Great Article!

That man sure has a beautiful head of hair! :)

[bigtree]

11. really good stuff

It's fascinating how our Democrats always have such deep and interesting family stories to tell. There's a wealth of tales from the Obama clan.