78 Years

Seventy Eight years ago, Americans woke up to the news that the Allies had invaded mainland Europe. It was a massive, daring operation that included a beach assault and amphibious landing, hundreds of planes full of paratroopers from multiple countries, an air armada of fighters and bombers, and resistance fighters working with the fledgling units that eventually became our current CIA and Special Operations forces.

The courage displayed not only by thousands of individuals who boarded landing craft and airplanes to make that assault was immeasurable. A small number of them had already seen combat; my beloved 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment were making their third combat jump that night. Most had never seen what awaited them in France. Most people have seen the horrifying scenes in Saving Private Ryan or the night parachute scenes from Band of Brothers. Those men were heroic for just putting on their gear and boarding those planes and landing craft.

“78” isn’t an anniversary that normally gains attention. We like the big, round numbers for some reason. 10, 25, 50, 75, 100; those are the numbers we gravitate toward. But, we need to remember this day for a reason; an entire generation put themselves on the line for freedom. That generation, and those that participated in the operation and the war itself are almost gone, and very soon they will be. We should celebrate what they did as long as they are here to celebrate with us, and then long after because they deserve to be celebrated. They were strong, tough, and courageous.

78 years ago they strapped on their gear, and stepped into the darkness on behalf of the world to defeat an enemy that threatened freedom of humanity. They were heroes. Every last one of them.

God Bless Them All.