Remember D-Day

It's hard to believe that it's been 65 years since the Normandy invasion, but it has. While I wasn't yet born, I was a child in the 1950s -- when World War II was still a very fresh and vivid memory for every adult. (And World War I was in the memory of almost every older person -- I thought of it as my grandfather's war.) So while the sheer enormity was overwhelming, I don't think D-Day was quite as unimaginable then as it would be to young people growing up today. Today it's so distant that it's something films are made about but almost no one still remembers. In that sense it might as well be World War I. And before long it will be as distant as Gettysburg; right now D-Day is as distant in time as the Civil War was to the young men who ended up fighting in World War II. (They were all kids at the time of Gettysburg's 65th anniversary....)

Last night I watched "Saving Private Ryan" again. Even that is now 11 years old.

It's sad to think about it, but time is running short for actual participants to recall their memories. But with the youngest of the World War II veterans being in their mid-80s, the reality is an enormous attrition rate:

One of the principal U.S. commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the World War II landings in France will take place June 6-7 at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Among those taking part will be several hundred veterans of the D-Day landings and other World War II battles.

The success of the Allied landings on Normandy's beaches 65 years ago spelled the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. But, while many people today know of D-Day from history books or movies, fewer and fewer people remain who were alive when it happened and fewer still who witnessed the dramatic event.

National World War II Museum Vice President Sam Wegner says the 65th anniversary of D-Day provides an opportunity to honor those who fought in the war while they are still around. "There were 16 million Americans who served in uniform in World War II and that number is down to a little over II million [that's a Roman numeral TWO] Americans now. The U-S World War II veterans are dying at the rate of 900 a day," he said.

Wegner says the June 6 events planned at the museum include a ceremony focused on the surviving veterans and their families. "On Saturday afternoon we are going to be doing a ceremony called 'A Gathering of the Greatest Generation, a Roll Call of the American Fighting Man of World War II.' We have invited down World War II veterans and their families and, in some instances, we will have the families of the veterans, since the veteran has since passed on," he said.

An 88-year-old D-Day veteran will be there:
One of the veterans of the D-Day operation who is on hand for this weekend's events at the museum is 88-year-old Tom Blakey, a native of Houston, who was 22-years old when he parachuted into northern France with the 82nd Airborne Division on June 6, 1944.

[...]

Blakey says there were many times in combat when he wondered why he was there and questioned the point of all the bloodshed and suffering. He says that attitude disappeared when he helped liberate a concentration camp and saw the atrocities that had been committed by the Nazis. But Blakey says he feels uncomfortable when people call him a hero.

"I do not feel that I did anything unusual or out of the ordinary. We needed to do something and we did it. It is just that simple. There were 400 thousand men killed in World War II and they are your heroes. I am just one of the lucky guys who got home," he said.

I'm glad there are still a few guys like that around, as it is so easy to forget the sacrifices that were made.

A point driven home last night as I watched this awful death scene in Saving Private Ryan:

Yeah, it's Hollywood, but scenes similar to that happened. Hundreds of thousands of times. Sacrifices like that have a way of forcing me to think about priorities.

Anyway, I'll be gone most of the day, and whether I have time for another blog post or not, I think the anniversary of D-Day is the most important thing to remember.

posted by Eric on 06.06.09 at 10:18 AM





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Comments

I think the reason that American love movies about World War II is that it is was one of the few wars the U.S. fought in which we were entirely in the right, and the other side was entirely in the wrong. In most wars, both sides share responsibility as a result of miscalculation, misinformation, prejudice, arrogance, or just plain stupidity. That was certainly the case in the Civil War, World War I and it is the case in the current war in Iraq. But not World War II.

chocolatier   ·  June 6, 2009 07:05 PM

chocolatier, I think you're on to something there. Also WWII is the only war I can think of where the losers were not punished for years after.

Donna B.   ·  June 6, 2009 07:13 PM
In most wars, both sides share responsibility as a result of miscalculation, misinformation, prejudice, arrogance, or just plain stupidity. That was certainly the case in the Civil War, World War I and it is the case in the current war in Iraq. But not World War II.

i luvs me the smell of moral equivalency

newrouter   ·  June 6, 2009 07:14 PM
Also WWII is the only war I can think of where the losers were not punished for years after.

alex i'll take eastern europe of $100

newrouter   ·  June 6, 2009 10:41 PM

You have a point, newrouter.

Donna B.   ·  June 7, 2009 03:06 AM

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