We Are Here Because of D-Day June 6 1944

Thank You

 Brave People Who Were There

History's Greatest Invasion

70 Years Ago

Today.

" I lived 

a thousand years 

that day "

               Wounded D-Day Veteran

[X]

I got to be born,

to grow up,

because of D-Day.

How many of us did!

Dad was in the

 US Army Air Corps.

All of our fathers

and uncles were

veterans.

As were

the cop on the beat,

the school principal,

the mail-carrier

and the guy

 pumping gas

[they also washed your windshield

and checked your tires!]

All the grown men

had been in 

The War.

The British, Dutch,

French, Chinese,

Filipinos, Australians,

NZ, and others

were our allies

and friends.

Germany was chastened,

Japan likewise,

but we were rebuilding 

them, infrastructure

and people,

as constitutional 

Democracies in our

image

and as friends.

My parents' friends

up the block,

I played with their kids,

displayed the 

living room photo

of Mrs. Schwartz's

handsome brother

in his US Navy pilot's uniform.

Action in the Pacific.

His body was never found.

Mothers, Fathers

 grandparents, siblings

sweethearts

grieved

and always would.

But 

they never talked about it.

The bereaved, 

or the veteran fathers.

"Real men" didn't.

Everyone was John Wayne.

But every family

processed the 

world's great pains.

We were the children

of a saved world,

children of Democracy.

It was a bright new day.

I grew up in a new house

purchased on great terms

with a VA loan.

(Veteran's Admin)

We would never understand

how the world suffered,

how our fathers

and mothers

suffered.

"Clean your plate

[ingrate] children

in Europe are starving."

And on some level

we felt their 

unintended resentment.

They saved the world.

How could we live up

to THAT!?

Fathers were tough then.

We didn't know why.

Perhaps they toughened us

in case of another

unthinkable challenge.

We needed to study

math to beat the Russians,

not carry a gun up the beach.

I am horrible with numbers.

The adults also whispered

about relatives

"coming over"

all very hush hush.

We kids didn't need to know

that they had been in

concentration camps.

I saw the numbers

tattooed on the wrists

of old people

who spoke with accents

but looked like us.

Laying in bed

I asked myself

if I could survive

hundreds of miles

crammed into a closed

boxcar with hundreds

of others, but no

toilet.

Today-

Outside my window

here in Honolulu

I see one of the globe's

great WWII military cemeteries,

Punchbowl

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

Link

President Obama's grandfather

Stanley Dunham

is buried there.

The President grew up

in Stanley's home a mile from

here for many years.

The Obamas

and their girls

have visited Stanley's

grave more than once

" My landing craft

was full of boys.

Approaching the shore

I could hear

 rapid machine gun fire

hitting the front of the boat.

I knew when I lowered that ramp

those bullets would be

hitting flesh

instead of metal.

We hit the beach,

I got the order.

I lowered that gate."

US Navy Veteran

[in his 90's today]

at Omaha Beach

"Live your freedom.

That's what we did it for."

D-Day Veteran

70 Years Ago

Today