D-DAY!

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JUNE 6th, 1944

There are few dates in history that hold more significance than June 6th, 1944. It Is the day that like December 7th, will be held as a game-changer for mankind. Sandwiched between the two dates is all the horrors of war, all the meanness, and ugliness that mankind could ever offer, and became the perfect backdrop for historical inaccuracy perpetrated by Hollywood.

Immediately after the war, it seemed that the war fever never left us here in America. In the following years, many movies were made and the dehumanizing of the Japanese and German people because of their ideologies was underway.

But in all the hoopla and rousing marches and battle scenes, we seem to forget the most important piece of this whole scenario, the strength and courage of the brave men who fought on the beaches of Normandy, who treaded water and bullets to reach the openness of the beaches where they became targets for their enemies, swallowed hard and silenced the chatter of machine guns and the destruction of the roaring artillery guns that rained down death and broken bodies for a lifetime.

More importantly, it took apart the innocence of the youth and cast them as men in this hellfire of death and destruction, of finality. We really don't know what the feeling of seeing your brothers dying all around you, the flashbacks to their youth and remembrances of family and home, as they tried to stay alive, wondering if this day was their last.

Many of those veterans chose not to speak of their experiences, and rightfully so, an ugly period in their lives not of their doing. And how many of these brave souls felt guilty in killing another human being, even in the line of duty?

We can never know, but we do know they were reluctant fighters who did their duty for themselves and their buddies, who just happened to be fellow American soldiers.

May God bless them all, those who lie in the fields of France, North Africa, Germany, and Italy as well as the South Pacific.