[risk]

How could these men face almost certain death and function?

I think the answer is deceptively simple, and comes in two forms:

1. The men knew that they were fighting to choose the destiny of western civilization itself, and the safety of their families. They were fighting for the future of their seed, and the seed of their fathers.
2. They were fighting for freedom. Americans and our allies will always fight for freedom. Ask our troops in Iraq: they would have fought with these kinds of odds as well, if asked. In fact, we didn't know that it wouldn't be so difficult when we sent them.

My father and his brothers, as well as their father were in WW2, but none of them encountered this kind of battle. They are just as much in awe of the men who went to certain death there as anyone.

There's really nothing I can offer to thank these men enough. But I will say this: we must stop teaching our children that WW2 was as bad as it gets, and it was the great war to end all wars. Democracy is never free. The success of freedom will always rile the hatreds of wicked men who want to take what braver souls than theirs have earned. We will have to do this again and again. We must build the martial spirit in each new generation. Otherwise, what these men preserved will soon be lost.

We have men who fought just as bravely in Vietnam, for an equally just cause -- among us on FR today. It's one of the best things about having a chance to participate on this forum.

[SAMWolf]

The great German poet, Goethe, said to his generation:

"What you have inherited from your fathers,
earn over again for yourselves or it will not be yours."
We inherited freedom.
We seem unaware that freedom has to be remade
and re-earned in each generation of man.

[Burkeman1]

A good post. But from the interviews I have seen with American WWII vets- they were not fighting for absracts such as "freedom". They fought for each other. The same was true among the Germans we fought against. Ideology had no place on the front lines in any of the armies fighting- Russian troops would kill political "officers" by "accident" all the time.

[Vinnie]

We have men who fought just as bravely in Vietnam, for an equally just cause -- among us on FR today

I certainly concur with that.

Opposition to the Viet Nam War seems to be just as much in vogue today as it was in the 60s and 70s.

Every time I hear one of these cretans proudly exclaim he was opposed to that war I see red.

[centurion316]

I think what you say is true, but not complete.

I commanded a rifle company in Vietnam in 1971. I was a Regular Army officer, my First Sergeant was a veteran of WWII, Korea, and was serving his 3d Vietnam tour. One of my platoon sergeants was Regular Army. The rest of the company, including the other officers, were draftees. They didn't want to be in Vietnam, and by that stage of the war did not believe that we were in a fight for the freedom of the Western World. They also knew that we were withdrawing, and that it was only a matter of time before all U.S. troops were gone. Yet they fought. And they fought well. Why would these men follow orders that might lead them to their deaths? Yet they did. Time and time again. Few left without Purple Hearts. They were all glad to go.

While I greatly respect and honor the service and valor of those who served in World War II and experienced the horrors of places like Omaha Beach, I am constantly reminded by my memories of those soldiers of B Company who served me and their country so well that other generations have done likewise and received little recognition.