THOUGHTS ON D-DAY
Armed forces members, active and veterans, indeed, all Americans should remember...
A LCVP from the U.S. Coast Guard-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarks troops of Company E, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division wading onto Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. American soldiers encountered the newly formed German 352nd Division when landing. During the initial landing two thirds of the Company E became casualties.Image by United States Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Robert F. Sargent (August 26, 1923 – May 8, 2012) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. This image or file is a work of a United States Coast Guard service personnel or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. § 101 and § 105, USCG main privacy policy and specific privacy policy for its imagery server).
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, United States soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, to liberate Europe and the world from Fascism, Nazism. From just June 6 to August 21 of that year, U S soldiers who participated on that invasion of France suffered 124,394 casualties. Of those, 20,668 gave their lives in the fighting. One half of the soldiers on the first American wave to hit Omaha Beach were killed, ripped apart by gunfire or drowned in the surf. The surviving young, wounded soldiers carried horrific physical scars for life. All Americans who fought carried psychological scars forever.
I have been considering the hellish conditions that they faced and under which they fought, suffered and died. How would I have behaved under those conditions?
However, I do not represent all Americans. At least one American, the convicted felon who is running as the GOP candidate for president of this nation, is of the opinion that those American soldiers who suffered and died were losers.
Could he be calculating that the over 30,000 lies that he has spewed and continues to disseminate will obfuscate his actions and words with regards to the courage of American soldiers?
Could GOP voters and the MAGAs that would bring down the United States Government in support of a convicted felon benefit from reading about the horrors faced by that first wave to hit Omaha Beach?
Should we forget heroism? Should we forget the traitorous words of the convicted felon?
Thank you for sharing Ann. These stories of courage in the struggle to establish freedom and democracy must be shared widely so that we do not forget. We must counter the voices of those that would turn freedom and democracy over to a traitorous, convicted felon.
We won’t forget it.