“They stormed the beaches and saved the world. The roughly 160,000 Allied troops who landed in Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, not only successfully executed the largest air, land and sea invasion in history, they did so amid daunting obstacles, terrible bloodshed and stakes that couldn’t have been higher.

“We will accept nothing less than full Victory!” their commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, told them. And victory, in this battle, was far from certain in the first hours of that first day.”

Continuing that quote from military records…

“1:30-2:30 a.m.

The British 6th Airborne Division and the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division begin the airborne assault behind enemy lines to secure objectives on the east and west flanks of the invasion area. Thick cloud cover hindered the air insertion, and some of the airborne troops were badly scattered.

More than 23,000 Allied airborne troops total landed in Normandy on D-Day, by parachute or glider.”

On this day, June 6, 1944, 2,501 American soldiers were killed across five landing beaches in Normandy the casualties, the most fatalities were at Omaha Beach, where American forces suffered roughly 2,400 total casualties killed wounded and missing with actual US battle death on this beach estimated between 600 and 900. As best as we know from figures from that era 183,600 American service members were killed in action in the European theater of operations during World War II with overall military deaths, including combat, accidents and disease reaching approximately 250,000 which by comparison with the pacific Theatre were 108,500 died. 

So to all of those people in the United States today, who find fault with our country, who hate it, disparage it, and make light of the sacrifice made in years past. I share with you this one reminder. All we as a nation ever asked, was for enough ground to bury our dead.

My God bless those who gave their life for a cause such as this. Their generation, their likes as it has been said before “will never be seen again.”

May God bless and have mercy on the USA…

jk