Sir, you made me weep. It’s OK, though, as we all need to weep this day—weep with sadness but also weep with pride. What they did for us must never be forgotten, not for a second. I live in a small town north of Pittsburgh, and I’ve gotten to know two veterans pretty well—Leonard and Howard. Leonard passed in 2014; he is easily the bravest man I’ve ever known. First wave, Omaha Beach (sorry, there’s something in my eye). He always wore a simple pin on his lapel: “Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944.” Leonard came here from Brooklyn, where after the war he sold concessions at Ebbet’s Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now there’s a man whose portrait belongs on the $20.00 bill! Howard lived through Pearl Harbor, having watched many friends die on the Arizona, with whom he had played a band concert the evening of December 6. That was all I could ever get out of him, still alive but quite feeble. They humble me.
Thank you.