D-Day anniversary

[ghost of miles]

Was just reading about President Obama's speech there, and the news story mentioned that a veteran had returned for the ceremony today but died in his sleep last night:

This D-Day anniversary assumed special significance because veterans of the battle are reaching their 80s and 90s and their numbers are dwindling. One American veteran, Jim Norene, who fought with the 101st Airborne Division, came back for Saturday's ceremony, but died in his sleep Friday night.

"Jim was gravely ill when he left his home, and he knew that he might not return," Obama said. "But just as he did 65 years ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in peace with the boys he once bled with, and may his family always find solace in the heroism he showed here."

Joined by Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama stopped first at the gray granite visitors center and then at an overlook where the leaders talked at length with two D-Day veterans waiting at the top of the once-bloody bluffs.

The sunny sky, crashing waves, lush vegetation and pleasant breezes created a scene of seaside tranquility at the spot one D-Day veteran recalled as mostly "darkness and confusion."

"I lost a lot of pals on D-Day," said Norman Coleman of Manchester, England. He marked the day by visiting several other burial grounds scattered around the region, where soldiers were buried as they fell in pitched battles over 12 decisive weeks.

Julien Marchand, a 40-year-old carpenter, spontaneously embraced Coleman in an outburst of gratitude on the streets of Caen, nearly knocking over the elderly veteran. "Thank you, thank you, merci," Marchand exclaimed.

Article here.

May have mentioned this story here before, but back in 1994, on the 50th anniversary, "This Week With David Brinkley" broadcast live from Normandy. During one of their outro segues to a commercial they showed black-and-white footage of the beach on June 6, 1944, with a radio journalist describing the attack and men under fire falling in the water and on the sand...then, as the audio tape continued to roll, the picture morphed to the beach that morning in 1994, sunny, grass waving in the wind.

Edited June 6, 2009 by ghost of miles

[A Lark Ascending]

You read about, listen to, watch footage of those events.

And we thing we've got problems!

I cannot even remotely imagine stepping out of a landing craft onto one of those beaches - I'm sure I'd be swimming the other way.

Amazing people.

[catesta]

You read about, listen to, watch footage of those events.

And we thing we've got problems!

I cannot even remotely imagine stepping out of a landing craft onto one of those beaches - I'm sure I'd be swimming the other way.

Amazing people.

I'm in total agreement.

A lot of character is leaving this world every day as we lose the folks of that generation.

[Alexander]

Ugh. Please. I admire those who fought in WWII, especially those who felt obligated to serve, but I have HAD it with all the "Greatest Generation" crap. Sorry. They were human beings, just like us. They are no different from the generation that came before or the generation that came after. Every time period tests humanity in its own way. You can't make comparisons.

If anything, what made the soldiers who stepped onto Normandy Beach capable of such an act was the fact that they were (in a way) somewhat more naive than the generations that followed. The reason your average 18 to 21 year old today would be less likely to face certain destruction in the service of doing the "right" thing isn't because they have less character, but because they came after Watergate, Iran Contra, and the Bush Iraq fiasco. They have less reason to believe in what their government tells them.

I saw a sign up in Johnstown, NY tonight (I was there performing in a production of "Bus Stop") that said that "those who forget the fallen forfeit their right to freedom." I thought that was a ridiculously overblown and provocative statement. Those who fell didn't do so in order to be remembered with parades. If they were doing it for the right reason, they weren't expecting to be remembered at all.

[Aggie87]

I admire those who fought in WWII, especially those who felt obligated to serve.

You coulda stopped right there.

[A Lark Ascending]

Every time period tests humanity in its own way. You can't make comparisons.

In other parts of the world, people are still being tested in the same way. I'm not saying that, put in the circumstances, we'd not respond accordingly. But we in the West have not been tested in that way - any conflict has been largely far away from us and carried out by a small proportion of the population (with Vietnam, perhaps, being the exception).

I won't get cynical about what that generation went through. We've just had local and European elections here and there on the lists are political parties espousing racist, right-wing dogma as if it all never happened. We can't be reminded enough about what those people (in many cases unwittingly) fought against and fought for.

[Jazzmoose]

I admire those who fought in WWII, especially those who felt obligated to serve.

You coulda stopped right there.

Yeah.

But it would have been shocking...

[catesta]

Ugh. Please. I admire those who fought in WWII, especially those who felt obligated to serve, but I have HAD it with all the "Greatest Generation" crap. Sorry. They were human beings, just like us. They are no different from the generation that came before or the generation that came after. Every time period tests humanity in its own way. You can't make comparisons.

If anything, what made the soldiers who stepped onto Normandy Beach capable of such an act was the fact that they were (in a way) somewhat more naive than the generations that followed. The reason your average 18 to 21 year old today would be less likely to face certain destruction in the service of doing the "right" thing isn't because they have less character, but because they came after Watergate, Iran Contra, and the Bush Iraq fiasco. They have less reason to believe in what their government tells them.

I saw a sign up in Johnstown, NY tonight (I was there performing in a production of "Bus Stop") that said that "those who forget the fallen forfeit their right to freedom." I thought that was a ridiculously overblown and provocative statement. Those who fell didn't do so in order to be remembered with parades. If they were doing it for the right reason, they weren't expecting to be remembered at all.

Don't be ridiculous, you most certainly can make comparisons.