A Time to Reflect
STEVE PETRICK WRITES:
Sixty-three years ago on this day thousands of men arrived in a region of France already soaked with the blood of history. They came not to conquer, but to liberate Europe from the nightmare that was Nazi Germany. It is safe to say that none of them could possibly have imagined that their country would set such a task before them. Yet, whether draftee or volunteer, a youth who had never thought of the military as a life choice or a veteran of the last war, the overwhelming majority moved forward to accomplish the task they had been set. Whether landing in the fields behind the beaches in a night filled with the sights of tracers and exploding flak, or struggling onto a beach swept by machinegun and shellfire, they pressed on. They endured the full horrors that war can deliver, saw their friend's lives torn from their bodies and had no time to morn them. On a beach code-named Omaha the First and Twenty-ninth Infantry Divisions met the heaviest and most organized resistance and suffered the greatest ill luck when nearly all the supporting armor that was to help them on the beach succumbed to the waves. The issue on that beach was in doubt, and its failure would have imperiled the entire invasion. At first they could just cling to the beach, but as the tide rose, they moved forward with it. Despite what was happening around them, they did not panic and attempt to force their way onto the arriving landing craft bringing more troops to flee. They did not try to signal the defenders that they were willing to give up, that they had found the task set them too hard. They bled, and many of them died, but in the end they did what had been asked of them. The moved forward. They broke the defense. They demonstrated why authors have since called them our "Greatest Generation".
So as you enjoy your day, remember that others have paid for your right to enjoy it with their blood and pain. Remember also that others are even now, today, spending their blood that you can continue to enjoy your own life in the spirit of those who stormed the Normandy Coast sixty-three years ago.
Sixty-three years ago on this day thousands of men arrived in a region of France already soaked with the blood of history. They came not to conquer, but to liberate Europe from the nightmare that was Nazi Germany. It is safe to say that none of them could possibly have imagined that their country would set such a task before them. Yet, whether draftee or volunteer, a youth who had never thought of the military as a life choice or a veteran of the last war, the overwhelming majority moved forward to accomplish the task they had been set. Whether landing in the fields behind the beaches in a night filled with the sights of tracers and exploding flak, or struggling onto a beach swept by machinegun and shellfire, they pressed on. They endured the full horrors that war can deliver, saw their friend's lives torn from their bodies and had no time to morn them. On a beach code-named Omaha the First and Twenty-ninth Infantry Divisions met the heaviest and most organized resistance and suffered the greatest ill luck when nearly all the supporting armor that was to help them on the beach succumbed to the waves. The issue on that beach was in doubt, and its failure would have imperiled the entire invasion. At first they could just cling to the beach, but as the tide rose, they moved forward with it. Despite what was happening around them, they did not panic and attempt to force their way onto the arriving landing craft bringing more troops to flee. They did not try to signal the defenders that they were willing to give up, that they had found the task set them too hard. They bled, and many of them died, but in the end they did what had been asked of them. The moved forward. They broke the defense. They demonstrated why authors have since called them our "Greatest Generation".
So as you enjoy your day, remember that others have paid for your right to enjoy it with their blood and pain. Remember also that others are even now, today, spending their blood that you can continue to enjoy your own life in the spirit of those who stormed the Normandy Coast sixty-three years ago.
posted by Federation Commander at 11:49 AM
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