Great post. I was at Pointe du Hoc in Normandy in September where over 220 Rangers climbed those cliffs between Omaha and Utah Beaches to prevent the Germans from using their 150 mm guns to decimate Utah and Omaha. After 2 days only 90 were still able to fight. Unbelievably brave men.
My father was a 1st Division Army Ranger in WWII. Although an emergency appendectomy kept him from D-Day, he fought in the Hurtgen forest, the Battle of the Bulge, crossed the bridge at Remagan before it collapsed and helped liberate Burdgesgarden. He earned the Bronze star and two Purple hearts.
They all were truly extraordinary men!