“(Actually, nobody at this time could even imagine the full extent of the Nazi barbarism that had washed across Europe—the millions who had disappeared into the gas chambers and furnaces of Heinrich Himmler’s aseptic crematoria, the millions who had been herded out of their countries to work as slave laborers, a tremendous percentage of whom would never return, the millions more who had been tortured to death, executed as hostages or exterminated by the simple expedient of starvation.) The great crusade’s unalterable purpose was not only to win the war, but to destroy Nazism and bring to an end an era of savagery which had never been surpassed in the world’s history.”
..."This was the pattern. Brigadier General Cota, the 29th Division’s assistant commander, had been setting an example almost from the moment he arrived on the beach...Along Dog Green and Dog White, a crusty fifty-one-year-old general named Norman Cota strode up and down in the hail of fire, waving a .45 and yelling at men to get off the beach. Along the shingle, behind the sea wall and in the coarse beach grass at the base of the bluffs, men crouched shoulder to shoulder, peering at the general, unwilling to believe that a man could stand upright and live.”
One by one, alone and together, all who've stood upright, lived and died in service to their country, made a difference. We honor and remember their sacrifice, and the responsibility that accompanies the freedoms we hold, value, and celebrate.
Added: Don Surber's Memorial Day Post wonderfully covers the history and meaning of the day, closing with this quote and lesson:
"Let the lesson of Memorial Day reflect Lincoln’s words:
'It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'
That’s a burden we have so often failed to carry. Let this be the Memorial Day that inspires us to live better and work harder at preserving (some would say re-installing) the government of, by and for the people."
4 comments:
I remember a story about De Gaulle who in one of his arrogant moods (were there others?) stated he wanted all the American servicemen out of France. The US ambassador (as I recall) asked if that included the dead ones. Ouch!
Seeing the cemetery made me think of it.
Luke Truscott notwithstanding, Norm Cota was the ETO's Ranger expert (he proposed a Ranger division at one point) and is credited (falsely) with the Rangers' motto, Rangers Lead The Way.
He knew enough about the Rangers to know the phrase was coined by Sgt Robert "Deacon" Dunn, one of the original members of the 1st Ranger Battalion (later killed in Korea), in an adaptation about the Rangers of the Stephen Vincent Benet poem That's Stonewall Jackson's Way about the raid on Sened Pass. Each stanza ended with the line, And the Rangers shall lead the way.
Thank you for remembering and sharing that.
I visited that area and cemetery sixty years ago, in the summer of 1965 when I was eleven. Later that year, my brother received The Longest Day as a Christmas present and I decided to read it (before he did!) and as I did, those stories and words and what we saw in Normandy came together to make a deep impression. Unforgettable.
Added the link to Don Surber's post on Memorial Day, which opens with a photo of the Union Cemetery, going back 160 years to May 1, 1865, before covering the words delivered by Pericles in 431 BC.
https://donsurber.substack.com/p/memorial-day-2025
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