Remember June 6th!

So do you all remember what is special about today? Do you recall the monotonous ramblings of your history teacher laced with dates and places? Today is June 6 and 63 years ago, during World War II, the Allies made a major assault on the Axis powers in an operation which has come to be known as D-Day.

You can call me pampered American if you will, but I still remember the military heritage that is the foundation of my Air Force.

On this day in 1944, the Allies risked everything on an assault to force Hitler and the Third Reich to its knees. The weather on the English Channel was in the 40s with rain and wind in abbundance. needless to say it was not the best environment. The water temperature sat at a comfortablly cold 52 degrees. Over 150,000 troops set sail under the cloak of darkness to give fascism the kick in the butt it had coming. They were all nervous. They knew the stakes that were involved. Most smoked and prayed like there was no tomorrow. For almost 10,000 of them, there wasn’t. Seasickness was so terrible for some that as they approached the beaches of Normandy they didn’t even care whether or not they got shot — they just wanted to getoff the boat. The battle was intense and ferocious from the instant that the doors on the assault vessels dropped on the Normandy coast. Young men lying on the frigid beach, twisted in impossible contortions, clutching rosaries in their dead fingers was a common image of the day. Countless warriors weighted down with absurd amounts of gear drowned under their own weight, their final memory being that of the chaos of a grey sky raining bullets. The ocean, which had been blue and inviting hours before, ran red with blood and sacrifice. Nothing but death, death, death. Pain and broken hearts. That’s what our grandfathers had to do to beat fascism.

Going into this battle, some men on certain missions had a 1 in 4 chance of making it out alive. Today in Washington DC, you can go to the WW II memorial and see them weep once again asking God what made them so special to have lived.

Why did they do it? Call me crazy, but it’s the same reason I and the rest of hte members of our great military do it today. They did it because they believed it was the right thing to do. They dreamed a common dream of freedom and shared the common nightmare of having their own overrun by dictatorship. In other words, they valued freedom above themselves. There was something more important to them than their own lives. The battles they endured were not glorious, but they was a job that had to be done... and they did it.

So, as a pampered American Airman, I’ll admit to you that when I’m busy fighting the war from my air conditioned office and my computer freezes up, it ticks me off and it drives me crazy. But I make it a point at least once a day, to take a moment to think about some of the flat out crappy conditions our brothers and sisters in arms live — and sometimes die — in. Today is one of those days that seems to make it that much more obvious. The D-day invaders deserve a moment of our reflection. They deserve our eternal gratitude for their sacrifice. They deserve to be remembered. And we need it. Because without them, we are nothing.

"The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten." - Calvin Coolidge