This weekend is the 65th anniversary of the dawn of the most important military campaign in the 20th century.
It’s also a reminder of our mortality and a chance to connect with our recent past before it’s gone.
As in all wars, the assault upon Normandy, France, was brutal, painful and brought far too many deaths. But the Allied offensive on those beaches marked a turning point in the European theater of World War II.
Americans played a huge role in the push on Nazi-controlled Europe, and they fought side by side with Britons and Canadians, among others.
The significance of June 6, 1944, was apparent even the day after -- The Daily Star breathlessly editorialized on the effort on June 7 -- but it was not the end. It was but the beginning of a long, difficult slog, a brave, dogged movement toward freeing Europe from Hitler’s genocidal reign.
Today, there is a rapidly dwindling number of American veterans left from the war, and fewer still from D-Day.
It is ever-more important that we must carry on the memories from that time. The horrors of that war, and its most prominent campaign, can unite all Americans.
D-Day reminds us of how we must move toward a world without war, but it also reminds us that until then, there are causes we must fight for, whether it be with guns or by other means.
Much as Pearl Harbor’s 65th anniversary two years ago was recognized as the last grand gathering of its veterans, so too do we experience this on D-Day.
The heroes who have always been part of our present are slowly fading, with grand dignity, into the gray, unreachable past.
All these years later, however, there are still those left who fought or lived through that time. If you know them, take a moment to learn from them. Some will tell their stories of war, while others defer. But this is a generation from which we can still learn, and learn from firsthand.
They are called “the greatest generation.” This is not hyperbole. Many of them, as the saying goes, gave the best years of their lives.
After that, all they did was come home, raise the next generation and propel America into never-before-seen success. The prosperity we enjoy today -- indeed, the middle class itself -- is due in large part to the men and women of the WWII-era generation.
They gave us freedom, they gave us comfort, and they made us the envy of the world.
What can we give them on this anniversary? Let us not only ask that, but answer.
