To All: It's D-Day...thank you veterans

[God luvs America]

Amazing...the television has been on for one hour and barely a mention of the most pivitol day in the world's history fostered by brave Americans to save an ungrateful nation.

[IYAS9YAS]

To those of you who gave me the opportunities I have today, thank you! You are not, nor will you ever be forgotten.

[wordsofearnest]

God bless them all. The true heroes of our nation. May their glory never fade.

[BenLurkin]

BUMP!

[b4its2late]

I wonder if the French know what today means to them?

[Okies love Dubya 2]

Today is extra special for our family...my husband's only living grandparent (his maternal grandfather) was present at D-Day. Fifty-four years later, on June 6th, 1998, our first child was born (the first grandchild and great-grandchild). She is five today--her brother was born on the same grandfather's birthday last year (9/5/02). We are very proud of the military service in our family (2 grandfathers, a few uncles, cousins, my f-i-l and my own husband, FReeper Angry White Man Syndrome). God bless all veterans and all those presently serving their country...we salute you all!

[Squawk 8888]

They saved more than just France. Had Overlord failed, Stalin would have owned all of Europe.

[6323cd]

Ronald Reagan -- Pointe de Hoc, Normandy, June 6, 1984 (The 40th
anniversary of D-Day)

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied peoples
joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four
long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free
nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried
out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed
for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies
stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled
in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of
France. The air is soft, but forty years ago at this moment, the
air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was
filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At
dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June 1944, 225 Rangers jumped
off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs.
Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the
invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out
the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest
of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches
to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- at the edge
of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine-guns and throwing
grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope
ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves
up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one
rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb
again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon,
one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in
seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to
seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five
came here. After two days of fighting only ninety could still
bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that
were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the
men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took
the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent.
These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's
poem. You are men who in your 'lives fought for life...and left
the vivid air signed with your honor'...

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here.
You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were
hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you.
Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled
you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your
lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies
that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer.
It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right,
faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God
would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was
the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that
there is a profound moral difference between the use of force
for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here
to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not
doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country
is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because
it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised
by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight
tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind
you.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Salute !

[firewalk]

Bttt

[jragan2001]

Unfortunately, many Americans care much more about who
will be the next star on American Idol than important
history like D-Day or how many aspects of our country
is going down the tubes. What a sad country we live
in at times.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Almost 11 am and I have yet to hear any mention of D-Day on the radio...

[Northern Yankee]

Thank you for that!

My daughter's heading over to France next week, and will be visiting Normandy.

She is aware of the sacrifice that was made. It will be solemn for her. (She'll show a hell of a lot more class the x42 did.)

Semper Fi!

[AngryJawa]

Thank you, Gentlemen, for all you did for us before, on, and after 06/06/1944. I am convinced that the future of the world was saved during those critical hours.

[Rummyfan]

Salute to all those Vets - from the clerks to the Rangers who took Pointe du Hoc!!!!!

What those men did is amazing!

[bruin66]

Can you imagine if we had today's media and Hollywood "stars" during D-Day to talk about the "quagmire" and casualties?

[SAMWolf]

D-Day Bump.

Thanks Dad (FIL), who ran an LCVP into Omaha Beach.

[Protagoras]

God bless our brave men. There will never be another conflict like WWII. Thank God for that too.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I wonder if the French know what today means to them?

It's probably too late to change our minds, huh?

[TheDon]

It seems they are tired of being reminded.