As we travel this unbelievably huge country which, we are truly blessed to live in, I am drawn back to the sacrifice that thousands of American 'teenagers' made 80 years ago on the beaches of Normandy France.
What level of apprehension must have washed over them as they climbed down the cargo nets hanging from the sides of the troop transport ships into those tiny Higgins boats not knowing what fate awaits them... Sitting here today I cannot comprehend the absolute horror as the ramps on their transports opened into a barrage of German machinegun and rifle fire trained on the very spots they suddenly occupied on that shoreline.
The only option they had was to advance into the teeth of that fusillade as their comrades were cut down, left and right, ahead and behind... Why did the individuals that perished fall? What roll of the dice cast the fate of those that perished in the full of their youth on that immortal day?
These young gallant heroes, some as young as 16, knew their odds of survival were 50/50 at best yet they knew their duty and carried it out unflinchingly.
Today, 80 years later, on this anniversary of the D-Day Invasion we pay tribute to those that conducted themselves honorably without regard for their own lives to keep the world free from the global domination of a maniacal madman.
The dwindling freedoms we still enjoy 80 years on are a direct result of the enormous sacrifice of the "greatest generation"...
"A Hero Never Truly Dies Until
The Last Time Their Name Is Spoken.
Continue To Honor Them, And They Will Live
FOREVER"
K. Shaffer - The Valhalla Project