Normandy

Four suspects in the carjacking of a cab driver in Oakland Mills were arrested yesterday morning after a Howard County police sergeant stopped a car for having a burned-out license tag light.About 2 a.m., in the 9500 block of Good Lion Road, a woman passenger left a Columbia Cab's rear door open and three men jumped in and assaulted the driver, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, spokesman for the department. Police said the incident was a set-up robbery.After fending off an attempt to strangle him with a cord, the cab driver, who suffered minor bruises, fled but was quickly tackled, punched and kicked by an attacker, Carroll said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.3200 block of Normandy Woods: Someone broke into an apartment Wednesday and stole a television.Ellicott City: 10200 block of Tarpley Court: Someone broke into a garage Tuesday or Wednesday and stole a wallet, cash, credit cards and briefcase.Pub Date: 10/24/97

If, like Linda Schweitzer of Columbia, you're a fan of "Combat!," the 1960s television series starring Vic Morrow, then life must seem pretty darn good right now.Encore-Action, sister to the all-movie Encore channel, broadcasts two episodes of the series every weekday from 5: 30 p.m. to 7: 30 p.m.; a big-budget movie based on the series is scheduled to begin production next spring (with Bruce Willis in the lead); and, come October, you'll be able to join a bunch of the series' stars for a five-day ocean cruise.

Police logElkridge: 7200 block of Montgomery Road: A resident reported Monday that someone entered a house through an unlocked sliding glass door. Nothing was taken.Elkridge: 8400 block of Freedom Court: Someone stole cash, checks and cigarettes from a house between midnight and 9 a.m. Monday after entering through an unlocked patio door.Ellicott City: 8400 block of U.S. 40: Someone took computers, printers and a fax machine from Lumberman Mortgage Co. after smashing the front door glass between 5: 30 p.m. Saturday and 8: 30 a.m. Monday.

Normandy Ford, a car dealership in Ellicott City, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it owes more than $6 million to creditors.In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the dealership on Baltimore National Pike claims assets of $2.2 million and says it has unpaid debts from about 170 creditors.The largest unsecured creditor in the filing is $20,684 owed to RMP National, a Philadelphia firm serving the auto industry.Other large debts include $14,306 owed to B&L Sales, a Baltimore distributor of car polishes; $6,100 owed to Miller Brothers Chevrolet in Ellicott City; $5,950 owed to BJ's Wholesale Club; and $5,204 owed to Bell Atlantic.

In yesterday's Live section, two items included incorrect information.The Oriole Bird will appear from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Once Upon A Child at Normandy Shopping Center, 8450 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City. (410) 418-4707.To arrange for a tour of Baltimore's Inner Harbor on the Skipjack Minnie V, call the Living Classrooms Foundation at (410) 685-0295.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 8/16/96

Class reunions and gatherings with teammates from the happy growing-up years have been pleasing interludes in the memory bank of life for Bill Rosenthal, who is articulate, gregarious and endowed with enormous intellect and extensive professional credits. Then he talks of visiting Europe and hitting the beach at Normandy -- the second time.He was hardly prepared for the latest experience, any more than when he landed there in 1944, assigned to a British light cruiser, the H.M.S. Ceres, as an American naval officer, for one of the most awesome events in the history of the world -- the invasion of Europe and the painful struggles that followed.

POLICE LOG* Ellicott City: 8400 block of U.S. 40: A black 1990 Kawasaki EX500 motorcycle was stolen from the Normandy Shopping Center parking lot Sunday or Monday, police said.

John Colbert has been bowling tenpins for over 30 years.That bowling career started at Fort Lee, Va., when he served in the Air Force. Now the Baltimore resident does all his league bowling at Brunswick Normandy in four leagues -- Tuesday Doubles, Friday BGE, Saturday Weekend Wonders and Wednesday Anytime/Funtime.In May 1993 he posted a 300 game and just a few weeks ago he came very close to an 800 series.Colbert, a right-handed down-and-in bowler, also came close to another 300 game."That first game [in the Tuesday Doubles]

One group of young people has a chance to quiz the governor, while another group -- patients at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center -- provides the object of a successful annual telethon.* "Talking With the Governor" (7 p.m.-8 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Taped in April, the Fox 45 News special with anchors Lisa Willis and Jeff Barnd features 40 students from state high schools and middle schools questioning Governor Parris N. Glendening on topics from education to crime.jTC * "Unsolved Mysteries" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)

Andrew L. "Shad" Crockett, a retired postmaster and a highly decorated World War II infantryman who landed at Normandy on D-Day with the 29th Division, died Wednesday of heart failure at the Edward W. McGready Memorial Hospital in Crisfield. He was 85. Mr. Crockett was born on Tangier Island, the son of a waterman and a homemaker. After graduating from Crisfield High School, he moved to Baltimore and went to work in the Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Fairfield yard building Liberty ships. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army and was sent to England aboard the RMS Queen Mary, where he joined the 115th Regiment of the Army's 29th Division.

The fancy invitation to a Memorial Day event at the governor's mansion arrived in the mail the day that Charles J. Harris, a World War II veteran who lost his left arm on the beach at Normandy a few days after D-Day, was buried. His daughter, Michelle Burke, picked up the phone to RSVP for him anyway. The 91-year-old lawyer only recently had begun to identify more with being a veteran, reconnecting at reunions with his fellow soldiers and donning a hat emblazoned with the 29th Division, his Army unit.

1944: First ashore At Normandy At the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy, the turning point of World War II known as D-Day, an Army officer from Linthicum, Leonard T. Schroeder, was the first American to step ashore in France. The day was June 6, 1944, the time was 6:28 a.m. and the place was Utah Beach. At 25, Schroeder was a ROTC captain and commander of an infantry company that crossed the English Channel on a transport troop carrier and then a small landing craft. The unit's mission was to break up the fortified seawall and liberate a small village five miles away from German control.

ARROMANCHES, France - On a hauntingly serene morning that provided a sharp contrast to what French President Jacques Chirac called "the dark night of oblivion" 60 years ago, world leaders yesterday commemorated the bloody D-Day invasion that led to victory in World War II. Led by Chirac and President Bush, the cliff-top ceremony was attended by thousands of American veterans, some of whom had not returned since they glimpsed France's Normandy coast from...

On the afternoon of July 11, 1944 - 35 days after the Allied invasion at Normandy - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower came across a forgotten note tucked inside his wallet. He called in his naval aide, Capt. Harry C. Butcher, who, taking the paper, read: "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

As one of the thousands of paratroopers leading the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion at Normandy, Earl Ralph Kelly was dropped 15 miles off target. But he could have had it much worse. "The pilots of the plane took evasive action," said Kelly, a resident of Aberdeen. "They dumped full loads of men into the English Channel." Those men were paratroopers carrying 80 pounds of equipment, Kelly said, and they didn't stand a chance. Kelly completed his training in Fort Benning, Ga., in June 1942, proud to be a member of the new outfit with high expectations for its men. He served in the 502nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division, through the duration of World War II and was assigned to the Austrian occupation after the war, until he was discharged Oct. 15, 1945.

George S. Wills can still hear his father's voice, 60 years later, summoning his family to the kitchen radio in the predawn hours of June 6, 1944, to hear the news of the invasion of Normandy. The first radio reports announcing that Allied troops had landed on the northern coast of France arrived at 3:32 a.m. Eastern War Time by way of a trans-Atlantic radio hookup direct from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters. Wills, who lived on the grounds of McDonogh School where his father directed the school's agricultural training programs, recalled the other day hearing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer for the fighting forces.

In his bunk aboard HMS Empire Javelin, Pvt. Charles "Harry" Heinlein felt gentle rocking as the vessel, packed with more than 1,200 American soldiers, awaited orders to leave Weymouth harbor for one of the greatest military adventures ever conceived. In the late afternoon on June 4, 1944, the West Baltimore native had no idea that out on the English Channel, one of the world's most capricious bodies of water, the waves were already so high, the forecast so gloomy, that Allied commanders were reconsidering their intention to launch a surprise invasion of Normandy, France, before the next sun rose.

Why was D-Day important? Why is it remembered today? Why will it be recognized for a thousand years? Put these questions to Joe Balkoski, and he will understand immediately that these are not idle or obvious questions. These are questions that consume his days. Ultimately, he expects that June 6, 1944, the day Allied troops landed in Normandy and turned the tide in World War II, will live in perpetuity. IIt has taken 60 years for the story of D-Day to seem as emblematic to Americans as Abraham Lincoln's appearance at Gettysburg.

Carol Malinowski's ascent to the title of general manager at the Brunswick Zone Normandy Lanes -- a landmark on Baltimore National Pike in Ellicott City -- started quietly enough a little more than 30 years ago. Then, Malinowski often went to the relatively new facility to watch or bowl with her husband, Tony. Malinowski also loved to watch her two children bowl, and slowly, she recalled, she began helping with the kids' programs as a volunteer. But Malinowski quickly was offered the post of program director, a part-time job. That turned into full-time work, and, after about nine years, she found herself becoming general manager in the early 1980s.