Today is the 67th anniversary of D-Day:
Think of that picture above and the courage it took to take that first step. Many of the men who saw this vista died without ever getting past the shore. What made them take that step? Certainly discipline strengthened them, but these men knew that they faced one of the most evil regimes the world had ever known — and that the Nazis wouldn't stop with Europe. Evil could not be contained, nor appeased; it had to be fought and destroyed, and that it would take a tremendous sacrifice to end it. They went forth to battle evil, and even if they as individuals fell, these men knew that liberty and justice would defeat evil, and that their sacrifice would make that victory possible.
"The courage it took to take that first step." I know I've said this here before (in connection with watching a Civil War re-enactment), but it's hard for me to imagine that, what it has to take to march forward in the face of almost certain death.
The losses at Omaha Beach that one day were staggering -- 4,400 Allied servicemen died, and perhaps as many as 4,000 to 9,000 Germans. By the time Normandy was secured, there were 425,000 total, casualties, 209,000 of them Allied forces.
