D-Day and Dad and Remembering

As a child during WWII, I frankly don't remember D-Day, rations, broken hearts, shortages. I was too young and too cared for and too protected. But my mother remembered. She had to portion those ration stamps out so she could feed Mom, Dad, Brother, myself, Grandmother, and Granddaddy. Then there were the 3 uncles when they were home from the army. That wasn't often, but it was a happy feed-the-boys time.

But today is June 6, D-Day and that is a day of destiny and a day of destruction and a day of determination by the combined allied armed forces to turn back the demonic army that was the Third Reich. So let's talk a little about remembering D-Day.....

My husband was not old enough to fight in the war. He was a teen. He remembers the headlines. He remembers the air raids. He remembers the blackouts. He remembers the influx of army in our port city of Wilmington. He remembers the shipyard and how the war ships were built. Those very same war ships that were part of D-Day. Ships loaded with young men. Men from all over the United States. Men who had left children, mothers, fathers, wives, and sweethearts. The ships that carried many to their watery graves as they tried to land ashore.

My husband respectfully remembers those fighting men and he instilled a respect for D-Day and the determined men of D-Day in our children - especially our youngest.  They have a little thing going.  Every D-Day they talk. No matter where my daughter is living on D-Day, she calls Dad and they reminisce about the cost of D-Day. The worth of D-Day. The battles of D-Day. The men of D-Day.  And that is because it is getting so easy to forget. Forget that there was a terrible war going on across the "pond" that old timers jokingly called the Atlantic. Of course, both of those big ponds had wars going on across them - the Atlantic and the Pacific. D-Day was in the European War Theater and D-Day was the beginning to break the back of Hitler and his allies.

D-Day is remembering the good that came out of the terrible. The value of a life lost - each and every one of them. The value of their souls. The worth of those peoples under the chains of Hitler's jackboot. The cost to free them so that we might all remain free.

D-Day is remembering our freedoms that were bought with the blood of scared but heroic, young men who gave their all, and remembering the ones who were able to continue fighting and come home at war's end. Thank you to all who remain. We appreciate your service and we are thankful you gave yourself to the fight that was  D-Day.