Smack-dab in the middle of Sainte-Mère-Église stands a 13th-century church. If you’ve watched “The Longest Day,” you will recognize it as the one whose steeple caught Red Buttons’ parachute and left him dangling over the fighting below.
Inside is a stunning French tribute to that day: a stained-glass Madonna and Child surrounded by US paratroopers descending from the heavens.
The Americans who fought in World War II had been bank tellers and teachers and shop clerks. But they defeated the world’s most professional armies: the Germans in Europe and the Japanese in Asia.
Gen. Omar Bradley called the D-Day liberators “the thin, wet line of khaki that dragged itself ashore on the Channel Coast of France.” Even from a remove of 70 years, their courage — and confidence — continues to inspire.
Today at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, President Obama will draw a connection between the “Greatest Generation” that won World War II with the “9/11 generation” that stepped forward after the attack on our homeland.
And rightly so. It takes nothing from the men who liberated Normandy to note their sons and grandsons have shown the same courage, from the Chosin Reservoir and Hue to Helmand and Anbar provinces.
So on this day we give thanks for all those who fought on D-Day, for those who did not live to make the return trip home — and for the new generation of Americans, inspired by their example, who have made the free decision to take their place.