Colorized iconic photo of American troops on board a landing craft heading for the beaches at Oran in Algeria during Operation 'Torch', November 1942.
Childlike boy in center is David I. Warren, who was David I. Wertzberger at the time. According to his son on Reddit: "He looks 12, but he was actually 21. His brother Bobby was a Marine who died in Saipan on his 24th birthday. David survived the war and lived until 90."
Ray Lambert had already been shot twice and blown up once before he ever set foot on Omaha Beach.
He had survived the invasion of North Africa in 1943. Then Sicily. Each time he had been wounded. Each time he had gone back. By June 6th, 1944, the 23-year-old Staff Sergeant and head medic of the 16th Infantry Regiment's 2nd Battalion was on his third invasion in two years. He had already won a Silver Star for running through German lines in North Africa to drag wounded men out.
He was not supposed to survive a third one.
Lambert landed in the first wave at Omaha Beach. Of the 31 men in his landing craft, only 7 survived the day. The other 24 were killed before they even reached the sand.
He started working immediately.
The first bullet hit his right arm and shattered the bone. He kept going. A second round tore through his right elbow as he was pulling a wounded soldier through the surf. He kept going. Something hit his leg and opened it down to the bone. He put a tourniquet on himself, injected himself with morphine from his own kit, and kept going.
He found a slab of concrete on the beach that offered a few inches of cover. He set up a treatment zone behind it, dragging men out of the water and working on them one by one under constant fire. That piece of concrete is still there today. People who visit Omaha Beach call it Ray's Rock.
Then a loose landing craft ramp swung loose in the surf and slammed into him. It broke his back.
He kept going.
Lambert lost count of how many men he treated. The official record credits him with saving at least 15 lives that morning. Other accounts say closer to two dozen. He worked until his body physically stopped, collapsing unconscious at the edge of the surf, bleeding from multiple wounds, his back broken, still in the water.
A doctor spotted him. A landing craft pulled him out.
Here is the part that does not feel real.
Lambert's brother, Euel, had also been wounded at Normandy that day. The two brothers were loaded onto the same evacuation landing craft. They were placed in the same wheeled ambulance. They were taken to the same tent hospital in England. They were brought into the same operating room at the same time.
Lambert spent almost a full year recovering before he could walk properly again.
He went home. He lived quietly for decades, rarely talking about what happened. In 2019, at the age of 98, he went back to Normandy and stood on the beach again. He published a memoir called Every Man a Hero. It became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2021, Ray Lambert died peacefully at home. He was 100 years old.
He had three invasions, four serious wounds, a broken back, a Silver Star, multiple Bronze Stars, multiple Purple Hearts, and two dozen men who came home because he refused to stop moving on the worst morning in American military history.
Today is June 6th.
Remember him.
His little boy, Noah, was only three years old when cancer stopped the world from turning.
In 2016, Michael Bublé was at the height of his career — sold-out arenas, hit records, millions of fans around the world.
Then, moments before a concert in London, his phone lit up with a message from his wife, Luisana:
“Something’s wrong.”
Doctors first thought Noah had mumps.
It wasn’t mumps.
It was hepatoblastoma — a rare and aggressive liver cancer that affects only a handful of children each year.
Noah was three.
“My whole life ended,” Bublé later said. “My son’s cancer diagnosis rocked my world.”
The tours stopped immediately.
The fame stopped mattering.
Michael and Luisana moved their family to Los Angeles and spent the next seven months living in hospitals, surrounded by chemotherapy, surgeries, scans, fear, and hope.
Concert halls became hospital corridors.
Applause became the sound of monitors beeping through the night.
Michael tried to stay strong for everyone.
“I much rather would have it have been me,” he admitted later.
For months, they lived hour to hour.
Then came the moment they had prayed for.
Spring 2017.
The doctors told them:
“He’s okay.”
Remission.
After holding his family together for months, Michael finally broke down.
“I fell,” he said quietly. “My wife picked me up.”
The experience changed him forever.
He stopped caring about charts, fame, critics, and celebrity life.
“I will never be carefree again,” he said. “And that’s okay. It is a privilege for me to exist.”
Later that same year, the family welcomed a daughter.
They named her Vida.
In Spanish, it means “life.”
When Bublé returned to the stage in 2018, fans noticed something different in his voice.
Not weakness.
Depth.
Gratitude.
A man who had almost lost everything and now understood exactly what mattered.
Today, Noah is healthy. He loves music. He plays piano with his father.
Sometimes, Michael watches him play and quietly cries.
Not because of sadness.
Because his son is alive.
Because they made it through.
And because some people spend their whole lives chasing success, only to discover that the most beautiful sound in the world is hearing the people you love still breathing beside you.
82 years after D-Day, WWII veteran Arthur Rose returned to Normandy and read a letter he wrote to his family just days after the invasion.
As Allied forces prepared for the assault, Rose recalled the massive buildup taking place across the English Channel.
"Thousands of ships and landing craft of every description filled the harbor. Everyone worked day and night preparing fuel, provisions, ammunition and secret material."
As the operation drew closer, Rose recalled: "Then came the word: D-Day will be June 6th."
When the fleet finally sailed for France, "everyone expected bombing, submarines, battleships, and all hell to break loose at any moment."
Near the French coast, Rose remembered, "We could see flashes in the distance and hear the explosions continuously."
Maja Chwalinska did not win Roland Garros, but she won the hearts of everyone over the last 3 weeks.
A journey that started from qualifying.
From world #114 to a new career high ranking of world #21.
The first qualifier in history to reach the Roland Garros final.
To think that in 2021, she stopped playing tennis for months due to a battle with depression and self doubt… Back then, it would’ve been nearly impossible for her to imagine herself in a Grand Slam final.
Her father worked as an electrician in the coal mines and her mother is a receptionist.
They worked tirelessly to support her dreams from the time she was little, and they uplifted her when she had to stop playing tennis to protect her mental health.
Her run in Paris reminded the world that if you work hard at your passion every day, if you have people who love you, and if you never give up on yourself, the ranking next to your name holds no meaning…
You can still make your own fairytale.
Congratulations on everything, Maja. 🥹
🇵🇱❤️
A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room.
She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill.
Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final.
Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat.
Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped.
She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won.
By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million.
One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.