It is nightfall in Northern Europe. The Luftwaffe is running raids over various ports in Southern England as Allied troops and ships have aggregated. They will kill several hundred of our serviceman just tonight. The dead will be buried, the ships repaired, the decoy and preparations for the Day of Days will resume tomorrow. In 11 days time, the Day of Days will occur. Let us not forget the Americans who perished before that Day. Let us not forget that this is our holiday, but how many Brits, Canadians, French, Aussies, Kiwis, and 60 other countries suffered and died today so that those 5 beaches could be retaken. And then two other theaters from Italty to the South Pacific. So many had to die just to setup the even bigger death count at the finale.
I hope and pray we never have to go through this shit again. I was fortunate enough to not have to have lost any family members who served in combat and they got live happy, long lives. But they knew plenty of of brothers that did die from WW2 to Korea to Vietnam to Afghanistan. I got to do the wreath changing at the tomb of the unknown soldier when I was just in 8th grade. I never knew why they picked me. I had a family of Naval service (and the other branches mixed in a bit). I had no idea the significance of the ceremony at the time and didn't for decades. But I'd like to think it was because the Sentries saw something in me that led them to believe I was and am a shithead. But I know a sacrifice when I see one. I wish I could go to my Grandfather or Father's gravesite today and recall the days they'd get together on Memorial day with their buddies and talk about their dead friends killed in action. I will take solace in the story my grandfather told me after he lost a lot of friends in theater.
"The morning after Pearl Harbor, I got on the train and headed to Great Lakes Naval Station. It was mostly well-dressed men heading to work in the city, but I was still a young man and the only one not dressed in a suit. I didn't know if I had made a mistake. I got off the train at the GLNS stop and there were hundreds of boys, maybe thousands. We all had the same idea. Beat back evil. A lot of those fellas I trained with never made it back to Chicago alive. They died in various naval battles in the Pacific."
Here's to you gentleman. RIP.