And Canadians. My mom is a nurse who was caring for a pateint who was talking about traveling to Turkey, Thailand and other exotic places (this was 30 years ago) and my mom asked him if he was afraid traveling in these countries. His reply was that he was in the first wave on D-Day and after that nothing ever scared him again.

We discussed Memorial Day over on Dining at Large and I discovered I was the only one to do anything related to remembering the war dead over the weekend (I made my annual trip to the Wall to honor friends and family listed there). No one else even purchased a poppy from the American Legion. Sad how soon we forget and how much we take for granted.

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Pete's reply: Sorry, didn't mean to diss the Canadians and other allies, who also made the heroic landing.

Thank you, Peter, for remembering and for allowing your blog to be used briefly as a reminder to any who might have forgotten just what a price freedom came at in places like Normandy, Iwo Jima, Stalingrad, Bataan..... and let us also remember places like Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Sobidor, and Treblinka. God bless us all.

My grandfather was a WWII veteran, although he didn't die while in the army. I have to say as an American Jew, the holocaust means too many things. Yom H'Shoa (I'm not sure if you know what that is; it is the Jewish holocaust remembrance day) is a powerful day for me because I remember how many Jewish children, women and men - it didn't matter to the Nazis - perished. I wake up on that day knowing that I should remember the Jews. As an American, I'm saddened that people including myself forget that not only innocent Jews died, but brave American and European soldiers risked their lives for the good of others.

I find it comforting that, on both D-day and Yom H'Shoa we remember not only the Americans and Jews, but (at least from my experiences on Yom H'Shoa), but the righteous gentiles (the Christians who held Jews secretly) and others as well.

I've personally been to Auschwitz when I went on a trip to Poland. We walked on the train tracks that led there. People were crying, holding each other. It's horrible that tragedies have to bring people together, but that's the way it is. There is a story about the holocaust (nothing graphic, just sad) that I'd like to share:

There was a family of righteous gentiles that was housing a Jewish family. One day they saw a lone Nazi soldier walking up to their house, unaware that the rest of them weren't far behind. He grabbed his shotgun and shot the Nazi as soon as the soldier came to the door. In case you didn't know, when you kill a Nazi soldier, not only you die, but your whole family dies. His best friend who was living next door witnessed this, and grabbed his shotgun, dragged the body out into the street, and stood over it until the other Nazis showed up. They thought that he had killed the Nazi and they murdered his entire family. His best friend's family was saved, but the man who really shot the soldier commit suicide.

I thank the Lord that eventually the soldiers liberated the camps, but too many died, too many people need to be remembered. Sorry for the long comment, but the holocaust is so important to me, as a Jew and an American. Thanks for reading.

I've been to Normandy. If the American cemetery above Omaha Beach does not make you feel patriotic and humbled, nothing will.

I have often asked myself if I would ever have the guts to do what those men did. The beautiful irony of such a question is that in such a large part because of what they did, I will never have to find out.

Thanks for remembering.

Hard to imagine the sheer horror of all those young kids having to do the invasion.Wouldn't find that many spoiled brats today that would be willing to do that. Today it's all gimme,gimme,gimme.

Both of my grandfather's were involved in D-Day. I could not imagine having to go through that at 18-yrs-old. To be honest, I do take my freedom for granted most days and I don't think about the sacrifices of our military members. Thanks for the reminder. It really puts Guthrie's struggles, along with many other trivial things, in perspective.

Great stuff Ryan and Peter...thanks.

Peter,a hearty salute and sincere thank you to your parents for their service in WWII.
At the same time ,I would like to salute my father,Sgt.Arthur Selnick,a WWII survivor who served in the 4th and 16th Armored Divisions,and liberatedCzechoslavakia.He knows Yanna Novotna,the Czech Wimbledon champ.She lives in his building and sends him either a cake or bottle of champagne every year on V-E day.

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Pete's reply: Very cool. Thanks for sharing that.

Yes, the troops were brave, but the plan now looks terribly flawed.

I just watched a History Channel show on D-Day, and I come away with two questions--

Why was shelling the beach from destroyers seen as a last resort?

Why didn't the air corp bomb the gun emplacements first, then send in the amphibious troops?

It seems that the troops were literally easy target for the unimpeded German gunners on the tops of the bluffs above Omaha Beach.

I don't think we Canadians get near enough respect/recognition south of the border for our contributions to WWII, which were probably much more significant (at least on the European front) than the Americans.

That's not a knock at you Pete, because I know you didn't do it intentionally. I just want to make sure all the soldiers who fought over there get their due diligence.

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Pete's reply: I didn't mean to leave the Canadians out. I kind of included them with the Americans in my mind, though they probably wouldn't like that. I doubt, however, you can make a case the Canadians did more than the US in WWII. How about if we just agree that everyone who went over there made a huge sacrifice for the betterment of the world.

And yet with the spoiled gimme generation we are fighting two wars with an all volunteer armed forces. Give credit where credit is due. It takes just as much courage to jump out a helicopter into hostile territory in Iraq and Afganistan as it did to ride that landing craft to the Normandy beaches. Remember that everyone was for the war effort in 1941-1945, even movie stars.

Logiopath

There's a saying that all planning goes out the window when the first guy hits the beach. It took individual initiative and bravery to save the day in every battle we fought. Look up the story of Tarawa as a particularly good example.

My grandfather, like so many other Maryland residents of his era, was a D-Day veteran; a BAR rifleman in the 29th Division. He had grown up a sheltered boy in Crisfield, and was called to serve with so many other young men from our region. He was part of the second wave of soldiers to storm the beaches, and remained with his company until he was wounded outside of St. Lo.

Although he was never comfortable talking about the horrors of the beaches and the hedgerows, as time went on he was able to overcome the mixture of sorrow and pain associated with the loss of his friends, and the guilt he felt at taking the lives of many enemy soldiers. Toward the end of his life, he definitely felt a sense of pride in having been a small part of something that contributed to the freedom of others, and that has left a lasting impression on the world and our country. I always think of him on June 6, and I know I always will.