On June 6, 1944, before dawn, 13,000 American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines into occupied France. By first light, nearly 160,000 Allied troops were crossing the English Channel in the largest seaborne invasion in history.
We call it D-Day, and the name itself carries history worth understanding. The Army has long described it as simple alliteration, much like H-Hour, while the French connect the D to "disembarkation." Some call it the "day of decision." When someone wrote to General Eisenhower in 1964 asking for a definitive answer, his executive assistant, Brigadier General Robert Schultz, replied on his behalf: "Be advised that any amphibious operation has a 'departed date'; therefore, the shortened term 'D-Day' is used." Whatever the origin of the name, what happened on that day needs no translation.
The boys hitting those beaches, Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword, were not hardened veterans in most cases. They were 18, 19, and 20 years old. They were farmers from Iowa, steelworkers from Pittsburgh, and fishermen from New England. They were young Americans who had grown up during the Depression and answered the call when their country and the free world needed them most.
At Omaha Beach alone, American forces suffered nearly 2,000 casualties in a matter of hours. Men were cut down in the surf before their boots ever touched sand. The ones who survived pushed forward over the bodies of their friends. They took the bluffs. They broke the Atlantic Wall.
They turned the tide of the Second World War.
I think about those men often. I think about what they carried, not just the weight of their packs, but the weight of knowing what was at stake. They were not fighting for a political party or an ideology. They were fighting for the idea that free people have the right to govern themselves, that tyranny does not get the last word, and that some things are worth dying for.
82 years later, that charge has not expired. It passed to us. Say a prayer today for every man who fell on those beaches and in those fields, then ask yourself whether you are living in a way that justifies what they paid. God rest their souls. God bless this Republic.
Why does D-Day still matter 82 years later?
Because on June 6, 1944, the future of the free world hung on a single morning.
156,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel into a wall of fire. The largest amphibious invasion in history. Nothing about the outcome was certain.
They were young. Most were barely out of high school. They knew the odds. They went anyway.
By nightfall the beaches were taken. The tide of the war had turned. The liberation of Europe had begun.
Every freedom we hold today traces back to the men who gave theirs on that shore.
That is why we remember. That is why it matters. We owe them everything.
Ray’s Rock - Omaha Beach
On the morning of June 6, 1944, 23 year old Staff Sergeant Arnold “Ray” Lambert came ashore with the first wave of the 1st Infantry Division on the eastern side of Omaha Beach. At this small patch of concrete he saved nearly 20 lives:
The division came under intense fire from several German bunkers surrounding the entrance to the Colville Draw (one of two exits off Omaha Beach). Ray, a medic, immediately went to work.
He was shot in the arm. Moments later he was hit by shrapnel in the leg, but Ray kept pulling men to safety. He pulled nearly 20 wounded soldiers to cover behind this 8ft wide obstacle, treating each soldier before going out in search of others.
After several hours under fire, while pulling a wounded soldier from the ocean, he was struck by a landing craft. It dropped its ramp on top of him, breaking his back. He fell face down in the water, drowning. The craft backed up and nearby soldiers pulled an unconscious Ray to safety, eventually evacuating him off the beach.
Remarkably, Ray had already earned two Silver Stars and three Purple Hearts in Sicily and North Africa, prior to landing in France. But here in Normandy his war would end.
He awoke in a hospital back in England a day later. In the next bed over was his brother, who had also been wounded at Omaha.
When asked about his work on D-Day, Ray simply said, “I did what I was called to do.”
Ray Lambert passed in 2021 at 100 years old. He exemplified the best of American grit and why remembering this day is so important.
D-Day (June 6, 1944) was the code name for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in history. On that day, more than 156,000 Allied troops from the United States, Britain, Canada, and other nations stormed five beaches along the coast of Normandy, France (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword). Supported by over 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft, the operation broke through Hitler’s heavily fortified Atlantic Wall and established a crucial foothold in Nazi occupied Western Europe. It was strategically vital because it opened a long awaited second front, relieving massive pressure on the Soviet Union in the East, draining German resources, and beginning the liberation of Europe setting the stage for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany less than a year later.
Did you know Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (son of former U.S. President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt) personally landed with the very first wave of troops at Utah Beach despite his age and health problems? He rallied scattered units under heavy fire, helped organize the chaotic assault, and became the only Allied general to come ashore with the initial invasion force that day.
God Bless America and God Bless our Troops.
Dear GOP Senate... Can we please stop funding the Taliban $40,000,000.00 a week?
Kind of weird paying people to hate us when they can hate us for free.
Audie Murphy. 112 pounds dripping wet, and 5'6" tall when he joined the Army to fight Nazis. Ended up being the most decorated American soldier of WWII. Field commission to Second Lieutenant. Went on to write his autobiography and star in the movie version: "To Hell and Back."
I can tell you all as law enforcement, when criminals know they can get away with doing a crime, they’ll do it over and over again. They’ll get bolder, they’ll start doing it out in the open, and they’ll stop caring who sees them. They know they’re going to get away with it anyway, so any threat of consequences becomes null.
When you have a political party blatantly cheating in front of us in order to influence elections while nothing is being done about it, you have to start asking who’s complicit in it and why is nothing being done about it. It’s obvious, it’s apparent, and it’s criminal.
I’m not going to expect any Democrat to vote for the SAVE Act, but any Republican who doesn’t needs to be primaried and moved out of office for someone who will.
Stop the criminality.
Anyone else notice that if a Democrat is in the lead in California on Election Night they declare victory and the race is over.
But when anyone else that isn’t a Democrat takes the lead on Election Night, California Democrats running the election shut down the counting, declare that it is going to take weeks to decide and tell everyone the results are going to change.
We shouldn’t have these corrupt Soviet style elections in the United States of America.
If you are Voting for @SteveHiltonx, you are voting for the same elite privilege he claims that he will fight.
Get to know your candidate, and read this article. https://t.co/jo4xhsgrvp