Dedication text coming soon …

The Truly Great
by Stephen Spender
I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul’s history
Through corridors of light, where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit, clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious, is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog, the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields,
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

Stephen Spender, “The Truly Great” from Collected Poems 1928-1953. Copyright © 1955 by Stephen Spender. Reprinted by permission of Ed Victor Ltd. Source: Collected Poems 1928-1953 (Random House Inc., 1955)

Taps

Headquarters Battery

A Battery

B Battery

C Battery

Memorial Plinth, Fort Sheridan, Illinois

Dedicated November 15, 2003.

The 225th Memorial at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, where the battalion initially trained on antiaircraft searchlights.
The plinth as viewed from the street.

Memorial Plaque, Blyth England

Dedicated May 13, 2003.

The Skylighters commemorative plaque in front of the 225th’s wartime searchlight position near Link House Farm, overlooking the North Sea, just south of Blyth, Northumberland, England.
Closeup of the plaque.

The inscription reads:

This plaque is to commemorate the Skylighters Searchlight Site TT114 (also known as “Link House” Farm, Blyth)

It is dedicated to the 827 men and officers of the 225th Antiaircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion of the U.S. Army, who were deployed over Blyth and Tyneside in March 1944 in the Defense of Great Britain under operational control of the 30th British AAA Brigade.

“Whilst in Blyth we sharpened our skills in high altitude tracking of aircraft and our stay in this part of England was marked by a generous acceptance by the local population, which helped us in our mission to gain the knowledge we needed.”

The battalion left Blyth in May 1944 and landed on Omaha Beach in June of that year as part of the invasion of Europe and the defense of Normandy.

“We will always be grateful for the help given to us by the local population.”

225th AAA Searchlight Battalion Veterans Association

Memorial Plaque, National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia (click here to visit the site)

Dedicated January 2, 2004.

The Skylighters plaque.
  The 225th plaque is in the section labeled “Post-D-Day Unit Plaques” on the plan above. The plaque is located at one o’clock in the upper plaza between the Overlord Arch (top center) and the array of shorter flagpoles on the right-hand side of the plan. Imagine standing underneath the arch and looking due South toward the large main flagpole. Then turn your eyes
30 degrees to the West (right). On the inside wall between the shorter flagpoles on that side
and the arch is where you will find the Skylighters plaque.
Aerial view matching the general orientation of the above plan. The Skylighters plaque is on the curved portion of the low wall to the camera-right of the Overlord arch. Courtesy Balzer & Associates.

About the National D-Day Memorial

Bedford County, Virginia lost more boys during the invasion of Normandy than did any other one place in the United States.  Nineteen of the boys, members of Company A, 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, died during the early hours of D-Day.  Three additional boys died later in the campaign.  Twenty-two boys never returned to their beautiful Bedford County, a place they must have pictured in their mind even as the invasion began.  The National D-Day Memorial sits atop a knoll looking out over their valley, standing forever in watch for the return of Bedford boys who will never be coming home. Their story is the subject of the Webmaster’s stage play, “The Bedford Boys,” to be published in late 2022.

The inscription on the entrance plaque reads: “The National D-Day Memorial exists to celebrate and honor the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of the Allied Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Physically, morally and intellectually courageous, those soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen and merchant seamen kept faith with the Alliance, their homeland, the chain of command, the mission, their units and their fellows.  In so doing they necessarily set aside comfort, safety, innocence, youth, blood and even life itself.  This monument pays tribute to those who died on D-Day, but also to those who lived to secure the beachhead and carry freedom inland – and to those who transported the ground forces by air and sea, provided their aerial and naval support, and delivered their combat and combat-support services.  D-Day’s success owes an incalculable debt to the participants.  That you yourself are free and here today is but a portion of their rich and enduring legacy.  Treasure it.”

A Modern Skylighter’s Commemoration of the 225th

Jim Mulligan, president of Sky Promotions (since retired), a promotional searchlight and aerial advertising company in Tucson, Arizona, dedicated his restored 1942A General Electric searchlight and generator unit to the 225th by affixing a plaque to that effect in 1999.

The plaque reads:

DEDICATED TO THE MEN OF THE
225th AAA SEARCHLIGHT BATTALION
U.S. ARMY WW II
1942 – 1945
“THE SKYLIGHTERS”

All the former members of the 225th appreciated his efforts at publicizing their role in World War II.

Closeup of the plaque.
A side view of the unit, showing the location of the plaque.
Jim’s full searchlight rig on its trailer back in 1999.

More on the Skylighters’ light can be found here.