"What brave men I must lose!"

-G. Washington, 1776

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me/Than all the hosts of land and sea./So let me render back again/This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.

-Joyce Kilmer, "Prayer of a Soldier in France"

There are certain rules about a war and rule number one is young men die. And rule number two is doctors can't change rule number one.

-Henry Blake, M*A*S*H

When the doctors cut into a patient-and it's cold, you know, the way it is now, today-steam rises from the body. (voice trembling) And the doctor will...will warm himself over the open wound. Could anyone look on that and not feel changed?

-Father Mulcahy, M*A*S*H

On this date in 1944, 155,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy.

On June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed ashore at Normandy. Americans, Brits, and Canadians, with Poles, Czechs, the Free French and others flying planes, helping out on ships, and preparing to fight on the continent.

We salute our remaining veterans on this anniversary. But Democrats can do what Republicans expressly do not do: make real a new GI Bill that in a small way paid back our veterans of the Second World War II.

It's easy to fly a flag, call a vet, take a moment to remember, and it's a good thing. But June 6th is a day to call for the new GI Bill.

PUBLISHED: Friday, July 27, 2007
Each day, 1,000 to 2,000 World War II veterans die nationally.

"I love you my sweet Jesus"

Culpeper national veterans cemetary

You are always with me Dad !

This question struck me today for the following reason.  You see, I was fortunate enough to be living in France when that country celebrated the 50th anniversary of D-day.  For weeks leading up to the festivities, the coverage highlighted the brave sacrifices of each component of the landing force, transforming French TV into the History channel, and mixing known facts with uniquely individual stories of heroism that most would have thought forgotten by all but the families who experienced them.  Given the propensity for bashing everything French, it would not surprise me if Americans didn't believe that as producers they overplayed their role in the affair, but they would be wrong.  They were both honest and critical about the small part they played.  

Today is D-Day, June 6, a day to remember.  A tribute to Steve Gilliard, who would have reminded us of this today.

Hal Baumgarten was 18 when he was drafted and left his home in the Bronx to fight the Germans in Normandy.  An NYU student, he had a chance for a college deferment, but he turned it down.

On the night before the invasion, 63 years ago today, on the troop ship he wrote his last letter home before boarding the landing craft.

I drew this big Star of David on my field jacket, with the "Bronx, New York," underneath it. It was my act of defiance. I didn't expect to live through it. I wrote home to my sister, Ethel, who lived in a two-family house with my folks, that when the telegram comes, run down and get the telegram first and break the news gently. I had made up my mind I wasn't coming back.

His mission was to storm Omaha Beach.

63 years ago...almost a lifetime away...for many of us it is a footnote in history, many do not even know what happened on this day 63 years ago. It happened 23 years before I was born and 56 years before my son was born. However, the events of that day touch me in a very direct way, and have had a lasting impact today.

More below the fold...

News item:

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.
...
It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.
...
(update)The survey was done by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health

655,000 Iraqis are dead.

That's a scary number. And a big number. I tried to comprehend how big it is, but my imagination failed me. What's needed is a visual model that illustrates the enormity of the situation.

At the same time, James was fighting to get appropriate treatment for his TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). He was discharged from the Army with a 10% disability, which means he gets next to nothing and no medical care.

Specialist Wilson rightly calls out George Allen, Virgil Goode and Bush for the place he finds himself in.

As he says, "The thing that hurts the most is my pride."

This should be required watching for everyone.

Video on the other side.

The Memorial itself is a beautiful place, up on a hill overlooking the surrounding area and the mountains. The picture at right is of some of the flags of nations involved that day 52 years ago when forces crashed the beaches at Normandy and started the Allied invasion of German-held territory in Europe.

Maybe somebody already did it, but I have not seen it.

Sixty-two years ago today, the largest invasion force ever assembled stormed the beaches of Normandy and established a foothold in Europe that would eventually lead to the fall of the Third Reich.  The allies, led by General Eisenhower, understood what a victory meant that day: had the Germans forced the invasion back into the sea, things would have been very different.  I don't doubt that we still would have won in the end, but the war might have dragged on for many more years and cost many millions of more lives.

With all the talk of primary elections and Mr. Bush's new scare tactics that somehow discriminating against gays and lesbians is somehow equivilent to "civil rights"; we must look back to a time where American patriots, along with our allies, were fighting the absolute battle for freedom.

(More Below....)

Dale joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 like many other men of the time, their country needed them, Dale was a radio and telegrapher, he could send Morse code at a fast rate of speed. He found himself soon in England with a B 29 wing, they became famous because of the plane the Memphis Belle, but Dale remembered the other things that made them famous, the amount of bombers they lost over Germany during the bombing runs.