D-Day lessons must continue to be taught

July 2009

I couldn't help but pay attention to the several televised specials and news reports this past month regarding the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy. Not having lived through that event, I can only feel peripherally the enormity of that event. But I do feel. I'm one of those that bawls like a babe at the ending of "Saving Private Ryan" — edited version, of course — and you should, too.

I find the statistics regarding D-Day itself almost staggering:

On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. The American forces landed numbered 73,000: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 34,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500 airborne troops. British and Canadian troops numbered 83,115 (61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on Sword Beach, and 7,900 airborne troops.

Just over 11,550 aircraft were available to support the landings. In the airborne landings on both flanks of the beaches, 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders of the RAF and US Army Air Corps were used on D-Day.

Naval forces included 6,939 vessels: 1,213 naval combat ships, 4,126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels.

By the end of the day June 11 (D-Day plus 5, as it is known by historians), 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.

The exact number of casualties (defined as dead, wounded, captured or missing in action) may never be known. The National D-Day Memorial Foundation puts the figure of US casualties at 1,465 dead, 3,184 wounded, 1,928 missing and 26 captured. The US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered around 2,000 casualties at Omaha Beach.

Staggering, is it not?

D-Day truly was a tipping point in the history of the world. Had it been delayed, Hilter may have had time to more fully develop jet airplanes, for example. Had it been unsuccessful, London might have been the capital of North Germany.

Did you know that there is a memorial in Bedford, Va., to give tribute to the valor of just the D-Day forces, in addition to the World War II memorial on the Washington, D.C., mall? Why Bedford, Va.? It has been determined that this community suffered the highest per capita losses of soldiers on D-Day.

As I watched these special reports — including Pres. Obama's visit to the Normandy beach and cemetery — I could not help asking myself: "Would our nation have this same resolve and commitment today? If asked to 'man up' and come together in a World War II or D-Day-type effort, would American citizens of 2010 do it?"

It worries me. I wonder if the Greatest Generation really has passed us by. I don't see that kind of resolve today. And I suspect there are several cultural reasons for that.

Again, not having lived through it, but I feel one reason that makes resolve and unity in 2010 different than 1942 is the lack of a defined enemy. I think the specter of Adolph Hilter, the knowledge of what he was doing and the firm understanding that he fully intended to eventually rule the world, was a powerful bonding agent. The War on Terrorism doesn't seem to have a fully developed, easily understood, here-I-am-look-at-me enemy. Don't get me wrong. There is an enemy, but is it a person or a hard-to-understand philosophy? Fanatical extremists, many of them currently of the Islamic ilk, don't seem to project Hilter-like panic or are not reacted to in that same way.

I also feel the country is more divisive than in the World War II era. Yes, there were those who didn't vote for Roosevelt or those who promoted this cause over that 65 years ago. But the rancor and discord over every social and political issue — beginning with and especially with Congress and spilling right down to the local school board — seems so much more pronounced than what I see of WWII history. Be it red versus blue, immigration or gay this or that, being loud seems to be more important than being united. Common bonds are getting rarer by the year, it seems. We look at how we are different today, not how we are alike.

I wonder if greed — seemingly rampant in corporate America currently — would actually allow the American manufacturing machine to stop and retool, to take a hit on profits for the sake of the common good, like had to happen in World War II.

I wonder if we have become so accustomed to immediate gratification that rationing would be laughed at today.

Yes, times change and today's culture is what it is. We can't go back and transfix former attitudes on the current scene.

But we can make sure the rising generation understands what a staggering commitment this was. We can insist that history lessons spend more time digging into the enormity of the sacrifice given by Allied forces during WWII. We cannot allow this history lesson to be hurried in any curriculum at any level. We can honor those who were in the European and Pacific conflicts until 14-year-olds finally take out their earplugs and ask, "Why is he so important?" Then we can teach.

And maybe, maybe some of it will rub off. I suspect that's the only way my worries will be alleviated. Even when the final D-Day veteran is laid to rest, we still cannot forget.