I am unlikely to do better honoring those who stormed the beaches at Normandy to help liberate western Europe from the gip of Nazi tyrrany than with the words of Pres. Ronald Reagan, columnist Ernie Pyle, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower or Gen. George S. Patton — whose speech was sanitized by then-screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola for the Patton biopic.
Thank you.
I guess the best thanks is simply to remember them, and what they accomplished that day.
Neal Boortz played a prayer FDR did over the radio as he announced the invasion. Very powerful, and eerily apropos today.
http://boortz.com/nuze/200806/06062008.html#dday
Quite the godbotherer, that FDR. Thanks, B Moe. Things sure have changed, haven’t they?
I guess the best thanks is simply to remember them, and what they accomplished that day.
And we should also be mindful what our service people accomplish every day. It’s easy to lose sight of how we became a great nation, especially when most of us are never asked to sacrifice anything while constantly bitching and moaning over our political and philosophical differences. Re-reading these speeches certainly puts any of my personal problems in perspective. Thanks!
God bless them, every one.
Someone made a comment the other day, in another forum, that has stuck with me. To paraphrase: “When a person puts on the uniform, he is essentially writing a check payable to the United States of America, redeemable in any amount up to and including his life.”
To those who have gone before, and to those on the ramparts today,
Thanks.
A lot has been said about the WW II generation and what they did, particularly as relates to events like D-Day. The simple fact is, which most people do not realize, is that those men quite literally saved the world.
We are talking blue-sky hero stuff here.
This is because, had they not succeeded in defeating the Axis powers, this planet would have been plunged into another Dark Age, the likes of which beggars the imagination.
Sometimes simply saying “thank you” does not seem to be enough.
And the even more amazing thing, Cave Bear, is that most of them were barely men, at least in chronological terms. They were 18, 19, or maybe in their early twenties — hell, some of them lied about their age and signed up at 15 or 16.
Can you imagine?
I think on this every once in a while, probably not often enough, and it takes my breath away.
God bless them all.
The Reagan speech given at the Ranger minument is one of the best I have ever heard. Tears streaming down your face good.
When I was growing up, we lived in one of those new post-war subdivisions filled with young families just getting their start. It was about 1955. It was like growing up in a giant VFW encampment. They talked a lot abou their experiences. But there was no bragging.
They are the humblest heroes imaginable.
I think they know what they did. How can they not?
They saved the world.
‘Thank you’ is not enough.
My dad tried that, but IIRC it didn’t work for him. May have been that in the small town where he lived at the time it wasn’t a good plan to claim to be older than the recruiter damn well knew he was.
My father joined the navy at 17, but his parents had to give permission. This had to have happened in 1943.
Clearly not, which is why I referred people to those who have said it much better than I could hope to do.