Every day we lose 300 members of the WWII generation, our greatest since the Founders of ‘76. Many of them, in their 90s, returned to France to mark the 75th anniversary of “The Longest Day,” saying this probably will be their last journey to where they changed the course of the war and history.
Know them. Heroes all.
These were men and boys who waded into the face of death against overpowering odds to save the world from fascism. In the first wave storming the beaches on D-Day 92 percent of the soldiers died.
Women did their part too, some flying planes, some building aircraft and ships and maintaining them and sacrificing and doing everything else it took to win a war against pure evil. England’s Queen Elizabeth II, then 18, was a truck mechanic and driver.
My great aunt Bette built planes. My uncles on both sides served in all theaters of war. One went in to free the concentration camps. About the Nazis he said, “Track ‘em down, track ‘em down to the end of the world.”
William Gatlin, a high school French teacher I met in the eighth grade, was there at 19. He will be 95 soon. He wrote, “I pay Honor to all those brave comrades to made it to the beaches before I did. May those who lost their lives that fateful day Rest In Peace.”
Be proud of these people who stood up when freedom needed them. Pledge to protect what they preserved for us.Know our history, it is who we are.
And when in Europe visit a cemetery where heroes rest, facing west. You will go home. They never got the chance.
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