D-Day

People tend to forget the sacrifices others have made in their behalf.

Sixty-five years ago the fate of the world hung in the balance as dictators and tyrants engaged in a vicious and relentless struggle to dominate the globe. On the morning of June 6, 1944, soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force, including men from every corner of the United States, set out to break their iron grip and to free the oppressed peoples of Europe.

Four years earlier, in June of 1940, Winston Churchill uttered these stirring words to his fellow countrymen: “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”

History records that England did, against great odds, stand up to Hitler in those early, dark days of the war. As a result of its determined effort, precious time was bought. The United States ultimately entered the conflict and the tide began slowly to turn. By mid-1944 everything was in place to launch the final assault on fortress Europe.

Operation Overlord, or what we now call simply the D-Day landings, was the largest single-day invasion in history. As predicted by General Eisenhower, the enemy fought back savagely. Yet by day’s end, and despite a loss of over 9,000 killed or wounded, more than 100,000 men were ashore and beginning the historic march across Europe that ultimately brought Hitler and his evil regime to an ignominious end.

On this sixth day of June, 2009, let us take a moment to remember and honor those, living and dead, who took part in that titanic and fateful struggle to free the world of tyranny. They were not supermen. They were our fathers and grandfathers, uncles and cousins, friends and neighbors. They knew fear as few have, nevertheless they fought courageously.

May we take heart from their noble example and resolve to vigorously expose and resist the would-be oppressors of today, for truly the war with evil never ends.