Saturday, June 6, 2009

Today is the 65th anniversary of D-Day

I found this article while reading some news stories this morning and I wanted to share it with you too. Even though I have a huge interest in History and am working on being a History teacher, it did not dawn on me this morning when I woke up that it was the anniversary of D-Day. (as I'm sure many of you did not think about either) But I found this story and it made me stop and think about the day and all the lives that were lost. A lot of times when people talk about going into the service or about the people in military service they say they are "sacrificing" their lives so that we can be free. To be honest, sometimes I takes a lot for me to think about how the men and women currently serving are protecting our freedom... especially since I don't see how the "wars" currently being fought were started because our "freedom" was at stake. (Please recognize that this is my own PERSONAL opinion and they don't necessarily have to be the same as yours') (NOTE: I want to make it clear that I don't disrespect people who are in military service, they join for their own reasons and ARE doing a lot of good in the world) But when I think about the people who fought in World War 2, and especially those who were a part of D-Day, I feel that they truly were serving to protect our freedom and the freedom of thousands and millions of others. And it makes me glad and helps me think more about why people today serve in the military.

So, a quick background on what D-Day was for those of you who don't remember from some past high school/college history class (or sadly enough, Saving Private Ryan). D-Day was an Ally (that means the good guys and included the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain) invasion that took place on a 50 mile stretch of beaches in Normandy, France beginning around 6:30 in the morning of June 6, 1944. 160,000 troops landed on the beach making the invasion the largest, single-day amphibious invasion, EVER. When everything was said and done over 10,000 of the Allied troops were dead. But we won and it put the Allies ahead and a dent in the Nazi's stronghold.

Anyways, here is the article: "There aren't many of us left standing"

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