Editorial: D-Day participants gave us gift of freedom, responsibility
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June 6, 1944 was not the last day of World War II. It was the day that the tide of war turned.
And that is why we remember D-Day — the day that Allied forces drove into the beaches of Normandy and parachuted from above in the start of a weeklong assault that assured the end of the Third Reich. D-Day was when thousands of people died in the service to something bigger than themselves, giving a precious gift of freedom and a precious burden of responsibility.
We can’t forget. The coordinated effort of American troops with their international partners didn’t just win a battle. They didn’t save the day. They saved the world.
And we do not have enough of those superheroes left.
A soldier or sailor or Marine just barely legal to join the service and storm those French shores would be about 93 today. Fewer and fewer of those men to whom we owe our lives are still here to tell us about their journey. We are losing the women who didn’t just aid in the war effort but pioneered their service, allowing today’s little girls to dream of a career in uniform.
We need to remember what they did on that June day, and all the days that led up to that landmark landing. We know the history, but we also need the narratives.
We need to know why a kid from a small town in Pennsylvania joined up and how he got home. We need to know the friends he made and the ones he lost along the way.
We need to know what made a girl reach out to fly planes or become a nurse in a hospital in a foreign country.
We need to know because those stories will do more than tell us about our parents and grandparents. They will tell us about the causes that mattered enough to put lives on the line. They can teach us about things that are too often little more than words.
Bravery. Commitment. Honor. Resolve. Strength.
We also need the stories because we are running out of time to say something in return.
Thank you.
Thank you for stepping up. Thank you for doing what needed to be done even though you might have died doing it. Thank you for everything you did to make the world a safe place to speak your mind, to be different, to live freely, to work together.
Every day it seems like we need those lessons a little bit more. Maybe the best way to learn them is to listen to the people who have already been there.