Today is June 6th, the 67th anniversary of D-Day.

Let us hope that we never forget what that moment stood for for millions of people everywhere.

I thank you for bringing this to our attention, not that we could ever forget. We should never allow anyone to forget this day, nor should we allow anyone to say that it never happened as they do other events in the war. The way our educational system is headed, it's probably barely a page in the history books now, just a paragraph in a few years and then probably prohibited to even be mentioned after that.

I can report that my local news showed film clips of the D Day landing this morning to commemorate the event so a good sized audience was reminded of the day. For years Charles Schultz used to depict Snoopy wading through the water off a landing craft in the Sunday comics around June 6th. I always thought it was clever of him to do that as kids across the country would see it and maybe ask their parents what it was about. I didn't see the Sunday paper yesterday so I don't know if any of those were reprinted, I'm pretty sure I saw one last year...but the good news is that there are some regular very public reminders of the courage and sacrifice of the men on Normandy Beach.

Ralph

My squadron flew the re-enactment airdrops a few years back over St. Mere-Eglise and walked around the town afterwards looking for people who might have been there on that fateful day, and video taped their stories. To their good fortune, the guys found two ladies who were both children and vividly remembered the paratroopers landing all about their town. One lady retold (in french) of how she awoke to find a paratrooper trying to set up a mortar in her yard. She acted out all the parts, and though the whole story was in french, you could clearly tell she had seen and helped the trooper set the mortar up. She even remembered and could make the sound of the shell departing the tube. That soldier was killed, and she and her family still tend his grave. The other lady also remembered paratroopers landing about her home, and her family helped get them on their way too. Her family also tends the graves of the fallen.

The heroism of that day is something I can't imagine. I've flown in a combat zone, but never stormed a beach, then climbed a cliff or sand dune to start the fight. Taking that first step from the landing craft, or that first leap from the C-47 into the night took a brand of heroism and courage that is the stuff of legend. I am completely in awe of their exploits...and they deserve every accolade possible.

We still talk of the 300 Spartans though their battle is generations past...and I wager the future will remember this day...this D-Day for the unbridled heroism that so many displayed, and in so many ways. God bless them.

The History Channel has been presenting several programs on the Normandy landings. Really very well done.

My former boss' father hit the beach at Normandy. My boss said he would never answer any inquiry as to what it was like. We can only imagine....

I'm presently watching Remembering Juno which vividly portrays the exploits of this unforgetable day. It includes interviews with survivours,proud heroes who recall their experiences--- one man states that it is hard to recall those things you want to forget---all of them have to pause during their stories as tears flow--- many were just boys but quickly became men --- I can only imagine the horrors of war that they witnessed ---I will always remember their contribution

I always remember these dates, as my Dad (who died in 1999) and my Uncle (who is still living and is 88) took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily & Italy in the summer of 1943. I've been told that this was basically the "D-Day of southern Europe" as the Allies made a major advance into Europe from the south. I still have boxes of pictures he took and postcards, etc., that he brought back from Italy. I need to sit down one day and carefully go through them. I think we never fully appreciate the sacrifice that these people made.

My father was in the third wave at OMAHA Beach. He refused to talk about it for the rest of his life except to say that it was "beyond Hell". He did tell me once that the thing he remembered the most was the incredible noise of shells and bullets and explosions and men screaming that made it impossible to even think.

When Saving Private Ryan came out, I asked him if he wanted to see it. He told me he had no reason to; he had been in the real thing and it wasn't entertainment.

I watch a show on the Military Channel that was one of the best I seen in years..It told both sides of the story without the normal "fluff" casualty rates that is found in most shows..One veteran said he was the only survivor in his landing craft the others was killed and wounded and when he found his company only 36 men was left.

On the German side on Wehrmacht veteran stated the bunkers facing the beach was knocked out one by one,but,by that time there was orders to withdraw and some bunkers held a machine gun or two as covering fire..He was wounded in the withdrawal and became a POW.He also stated a lot of the German soldiers surrendered...

On a sad note several Allied POWs was gunned down by a SS unit .

My stepfather jumped with the 101st, landed safely somewhere near St Mere Eglise, and started the invasion from there. He never spoke of it...well...almost never. The only thing he would tell me is what weapons he jumped with, and that sometime after the invasion, he broke his back setting explosives to blow up a bridge. Two week laid up in a field hospital, he decided he had enough, got up and walked out...(which messed his back up for the rest of his life). He rejoined his unit and finished out the war. He never spoke of his exploits, hated Maxwell D. Taylor, and recoiled whenever anything about the concentration camps was mentioned or viewed on TV.

One time while living in northern Virginia, our family drove to visit the grave of a cousin, a Navy test pilot, who was buried at Arlington. We passed by the out-stretched wings of the memorial statue to the 101st. He saw the screamin' eagle, stopped the car, then turned the car around and headed for home. He never said a word, and none of us dared ask him why. I pity he died without letting the burden he carried for so long see the light of day. He kept it all inside till the end.

How all of these people made it through the war, then lived to turn this nation into the leading economic and technological leader of the world, while carrying that burden inside, is truly amazing. To call them "the greatest generation" is an understatement.