Millions Cried Out For Liberation And The World Prayed For Its Rescue

World War II veteran Paul Jackson, who landed on the beach during D-Day, signs a photograph from D-Day during an event to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day at the National World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

This day, June 6th, marks the 72nd anniversary of D-Day.  Operation Overlord was the largest invasion by sea in history on the Normandy shores of France and was the turning point in World War II by Allied Forces to liberate the continent of Europe from Nazi Germany.

There are so few surviving veterans.  The National World War II Museum estimates that by 2036, there will be no living veterans out of the roughly 16 million who served from the United States.

Prolific character actor, Charles Durning, who died on Christmas Eve 2012, was in the first wave of troops to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day and his unit’s lone survivor of a machine gun ambush.

For much of his life, he avoided discussing the harrowing combat experiences that never left him confessing, “There are many secrets in us, in the depths of our souls that we don’t want anyone to know about.  There’s terror and repulsion in us, the terrible spot that we don’t talk about.  That place that no one knows about—horrifying things we keep secret.”

In 2007, during the National Memorial Day Concert from the West Lawn of the US Capitol, Durning recounted the horror of the landing on Omaha Beach.  It was riveting and left the audience in tears.

Durning was awarded a Silver Star for valor and three Purple Hearts.  He spent months in hospitals and was treated for psychological trauma.  In 2008, France awarded him the National Order of the Legion of Honor.

This June 6, remember well the heroism of all those young men who fought to liberate America’s oldest ally from Nazi occupation. Without their service and sacrifice, our world might be a darker place. Gen. George S. Patton may have summed it up best when he said, "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

Normandy: The 6th Of June

Normandy's cliffs are still littered with gun emplacements and other heart-rending reminders of the invasion that freed a continent including the white headstones of thousands of fallen American troops who fought against tyranny.

Today amid the stillness, it is disquieting to imagine that above the cliffs of Omaha Beach, the Germans had at least 85 heavy weapons and machine guns trained on the beaches below that could rain down about 100,000 rounds per minute cutting our boys to ribbons.

Ernie Pyle, the Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent for Scripps-Howard, was walking along the beach and noticed something in the sand.

“The strong swirling tides of the Normandy coast line shifted the contours of the sandy beach as they moved in and out. They carried soldier’s bodies out to sea, and later they returned them. They covered the corpses of heroes with sand, and then in their whims they uncovered them.”

“As I plowed out over the wet sand, I walked around what seemed to be a couple of pieces of driftwood sticking out of the sand. But they weren’t driftwood. They were a soldier’s two feet. He was completely covered except for his feet; the toes of his GI shoes pointed towards the land he had come so far to see, and which he saw so briefly.”

It has been 30 years since President Ronald Reagan commemorated the 60th anniversary of D-Day.  Following his speech at Point du Hoc, he spoke at the Omaha Beach Memorial to honor those who died there saying, “…We can only honor them by rededicating ourselves to the cause for which they gave a last full measure of devotion.”

“Today we do rededicate ourselves to that cause. And at this place of honor, we're humbled by the realization of how much so many gave to the cause of freedom and to their fellow man.”

President Stompy Feet will commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day amid his squabble with Putin.  In light of his disdain for America’s military albeit the VA scandal and the 5-for-1 trade of high-ranking Taliban commanders for a “warrior of Islam” deserter, I am glad that the brave heroes who are resting peacefully beneath those white headstones cannot see the dishonor this president has brought upon America or know the cowardice of the man who currently occupies the Oval Office.