It’s the 81st anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe, and I can’t do better than repost what I wrote last year with a few minor edits…
It’s worth a pause to remember that freedom isn’t free. Over 4,000 allied soldiers died that day. The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan (9+ minutes) captures some of the horror of it:
Here are a few of the comments posted on this film clip:
Imagine living for 18-30 years, then going through weeks of demanding training, just be shot dead immediately after the landing boat door opens.
This is thought to be the most accurate depiction of war ever put to film. Hundreds of veterans walked out of seeing it in theaters because it was too much to take in.
I’d like to say a thanks to all the brave men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice on June 6th 1944, lest we forget.
I can’t improve on those.
Here is a first-person account from a 101-year-old veteran of D-Day. Jake Larson would be 102 years old now, still alive, as far as I know.
Wright Bryan, a graduate of my alma mater, Clemson University. broadcast the the first radio report of the invasion. He went on to have a distinguished career in journalism and was Vice-President for Development at Clemson when I was a student. (Of course, none of us undergrads knew any of that history.)
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15.13, ESV)
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.8, ESV)
Loved both of these stories. Dad said he was with those who marched into Paris to liberate it. Other than a couple of funny stories and a picture of a couple of French women he knew, he refused to talk about the war. (He met and married Mom after the war.) And when he, Mother, and my sister arrived in Luxembourg to visit us in 1978, I drove them to the memorial cemetery there thinking he would be interested. How little I understood about deep pain. We weren’t there 8-10 minutes when he said, “Let’s go.” And that was the end of the discussion. Thanks to God for those who gave their lives, and thanks to God for sparing my dad!