A Historic Day
Administrative
Sort of a lame title for a post about a day of such significance, but that was the best I could do. I am a "history nut" as some are prone to say, both racing history and history in general. I spend a great deal of my spare time reading books on historic events and watch most historic documentaries on television. I have always been drawn to read and watch everything I can concerning WWII, probably because my Daddy fought in that war and I grew up knowing many men who had fought in both the Pacific and European "theaters" as they are called.
It is about 9:00 a.m. EDT as I begin this post. That would make it, if my calculations are correct, about 2:00 p.m. on the coast of France. Seventy years ago today, that would mean the beaches at Normandy were covered with the bodies of the dead and wounded soldiers who had undertaken the greatest amphibious assault in the history. In order to defeat Nazi Germany, Operation Overlord was put into motion.
I have watched all the documentary footage taken during the actual battle. I have seen such movie recreations as that of "Saving Private Ryan" but even with the imagination I have, I cannot imagine what it must have been like. Such fierce fighting and such horror of what was going on as the Germans made that effort to repel the Allies. Thankfully, the documentary footage I have watched over the years has deleted the really tough parts to watch, but even so, the carnage is unbelievable.
There are over 10,000 men resting under the white monuments in Normandy. News coverage is everywhere because this is the 70th anniversary of that day of the invasion and it is likely the last anniversary date where actual survivors of the battle will be on hand as most are now in their late 80s or early 90s. What those guys did that day, and the days afterwards as they fought their way into Germany to destroy Hitler's Third Reich, make this day, June 6th, a historic day for sure.
Many of the heroes of stock car racing, prior to the war and certainly after the war, were a part of the fighting in Europe and in the Pacific. What made these men defend their country and save the world is the same dedication to duty that won the war and the same dedication to the sport of Stock Car Racing that made it what it is today. Just read some of the history of the sport in relation to the men you will find having served in this war. Quite impressive.
But today, this History Minute is about D-Day, June 6, 1944. Tom Brokaw called those men "The Greatest Generation" and perhaps that is a clear definition of those men. What transpired on those beaches in France is to be remembered forever as an impossible task accomplished by men, well most were boys 18 - 22, that made the world far different than the radical Nazi Germany.
While it is not intended to take away the smallest part of the memory of honor of D-Day, I think we need to remember such battles as Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and The Battle of the Bulge. I have grown up around men who fought in all those battles. I go to church now with a survivor of the Battle of the Bulge. I have heard first hand stories all my life of the horrors of war. My generation had Viet Nam but I was sailing the ocean blue in the Navy and had no experience fighting in the jungle. Today's generation has been engaged in a war that seems to have started far too long ago and still continues.
Today, is the day to honor those of The Greatest Generation who fought their way across those beaches and up those cliffs in France 70 years ago. It is a day to remember that the resolve of men dedicated to the cause of freedom far outweighed the evil unleashed by Adolf Hitler.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:02:57PM
