How Quickly We Forget...

[Herc Driver]

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.