We lost an amazing man last week.
His name was Richard Onines.
You might know him.
You might not know that,
but you might know him.
He was one of the last remaining people
who was there on Omaha Beach.
He was a signal man.
He was standing on the beach
doing his Morse Code
to signal the boats to come
into the beach.
Everybody was crawling in the sand.
Richard was just standing there
waving his arms and flags.
And the Germans didn't shoot him.
He didn't find out until much later
the guys on the boats couldn't read
Morse Code.
They had NO idea what he was doing,
but they figured he must want them to come in.
So they did.
He featured prominently on a History Channel
documentary about that event.
Mom knows him.
A little.
He called the Geneology Center help line
and got her on the phone.
After she answered his questions, she
chatted with him and found out he lived in
our city and we were actually in the same
ward and knew each other.
He was a favorite "Grandpa" in the ward.
He was a great Gospel Doctrines teacher
and when he wasn't teaching, he sat on the
front row with his lovely wife and always
contributed excellent insight into the lessons.
His memorial service was held on Saturday
and we got to meet many of their 10 children
dozens of grandchildren and 37 great grandchildren.
They did a couple of really nice
family choir numbers.
(He was VERY musical - originally entering the
Navy in the drum corp and the choir.)
(Then they trained him to signal - but never
really taught him to shoot.)
He was a great man.
He was a true friend.
He will be missed by many.
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