I was happy to see that the article titled “Remembering Delawareans who died on D-Day” mentioned Lani Spahr playing his bagpipe on the 80th anniversary of that special day.
At Normandy, some of the British troops were from Scotland, and they were led by Lord Lovat, a Scottish nobleman who had brought his personal piper, Willam Millin, known as Piper Bill, who was 21 years old. Pipers were a tradition of Scottish and Irish troops in battle. Millin was the only person to wear a kilt during the invasion and had no weapon except for a small ceremonial dagger. However, by World War II, pipers were not allowed on the front lines. But Lord Lovat had an answer for that for Piper Bill. "Ah, but that's the English War Office. You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn't apply.”
I remember hearing about German soldiers saying they didn’t shoot at Millin because they all thought he was crazy. Maybe there was some humanity during that terrible time.
Not unrelated, former Delaware State Police Superintendent Robert Coupe, one of the best people I have ever known and with whom I cooperated on some training, learned to play the pipes and started the Delaware State Police Pipe Band. Pipes are not easy to play, and it takes work and endless practice to play them correctly. The state police are lucky to have that band, as is Delaware to have both.
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