Sunday, December 19, 2021
I first met Tom, his amazing and lovely wife, Beris, and their children, Gail and Peter, in 1960. They lived next door to my parents in Gibraltar, where the dads were stationed for 4 years while representing their respective services. This foursome was the nucleus of a group of a dozen or so officers and their wives who all became fast friends ... and whose relationships endured over many years and the separation of several continents. My brother and I visited Gibraltar many times and were taken in as friends and family by all the Hortons. I remember Tom and Beris as people who always had a smile and good word to say about everything and everyone. Tom and Beris retired in Alexandria, VA, where my parents were also living, so their friendship carried on ... as did mine. I called him this past D-Day anniversary just to check in (knowing that he had been not only an RAF pilot engaged in the Battle of Britain, but also in the D-Day invasion itself) ... and asked if he remembered what he had been doing on D-Day. He said he did, and quite vividly. He remembered flying his Mosquito on a dawn mission over Normandy where he had been dropping dye markers to identify later-that-day bombing targets. Upon completion, as he was heading west back to his base in England, he encountered literally tens of thousands of ships and planes going in the opposite direction! He recalled that this was the first time he had any notion that the invasion was scheduled for that day, June 6th. Tom will be missed by all his friends and family, and also should remembered by everyone as one about whom Winston Churchill said, " ... never have so many owed so much to so few ...".
