Remembering D-Day

Today, we remember D-Day, opening 82 years ago in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, with parachute and then later amphibious landings on the northern coast of France in Normandy.  Over 156,000 paratroopers, soldiers, and airmen on hundreds of aircraft and tens of thousands of sailors on almost 7,000 ships and landing craft participated in the opening of the “Great Crusade.”  Despite the Nazis being surprised as to where and when the landings would occur, they recovered quickly enough to inflict over 10,000 casualties of which over 4,400 were killed in action.  Let us never forget that they fought, bled and died to turn back and defeat the dark evil tide of fascist authoritarianism.