Today...6th of June...

We remember those who stormed the beaches of Normandy...

Those who fell and those who made it past the barrage of machine gun fire and mortars.

Today we remember the sacrifice of those we may or may not have known always, but hold dear in our hearts forevermore as Canadian and American heroes.

Je Me Souviens...I will Remember, but more importantly, Merci, Thank You.

Today, as I take my sons to Glider Training, I think of you. As we prepare to go fishing, I think of you. As I sit here now, I think of you.

I think of the sacrifice and the legacy of honour you left for all of us, and feel compelled to live my life to the fullest. I pledge to waste nothing of the time and freedom your payment left me in debt forever.

So as I tip my glass, tilt my rod, and land that little fish, my mind wonders to your deeds, and you, as heroes, so I thank you with all my heart. Today I breath free, and do all the things I love, with all the people I love, because brave men and boys, paid a price for me to do so.

Your memory will never die, so long as those of us that recognise the monumental sacrifice you made, for us. People whom some of you have never, nor will ever, have met. But for us, your sacrifice was the most important.

So again I say thank you and Je Me Souviens.

Thanks for a beautiful post CDNBear.Yes it is a day to remember .There were also Polish heroes who have stormed the beaches .Some of them remained there together with the Canadian and the American heroes in Hoock von Holland cemeteries .

My humblest apologies China, you are quite correct. Many Nations performed admirably on that fateful day. I may have forgotten to mention them, but that in no way diminishes their sacrifice and the honour they have earned along with a steadfast place in my heart...

And thank you.

Too bad that Normandy's shores will be defiled by the presense of Obama.

With all due respect YJ, this thread was meant as a place of homage and respect to those that died on the beaches of Normandy. And to those that carry the burden of the memory of that fateful day in our history.

Not a place to bash politicians.

That is, as far as I'm concern, a disrespectful act, at best.

Nice Piece CB.
Just consider the source of the disrespect. Someone far to the right of junior bush and all the other religious terrorists around the world..

Good post i will remember for sure the lives lost in the europe and asia... People of all nations... Yes even those reds, and even the german soliders themselves should be remembered

Today is a remembrance day and even if it is not Nov 11 I listened to this song in remembrance of those who lost their lives so that we may be free.
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Well done Bear, excellent and timely OP.

I remember a particular relative of mine, recently deceased, alas, on this day. He was with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, part of the 3rd Brigade of the British 6th Airborne Division. The battalion was dropped east of the Orne River on the left flank of the main British assault force on D-Day, jumped again with U.S. 8th Airborne Corps at the crossing of the Rhine, then drove and marched across northern Germany to the Baltic, breaking defence lines to cross the Dortmund-Ems Canal in Ladbergen, the Weser near Celle, and then the Elbe in Lauenbourg. It was part of the big push to meet the advancing Soviets as far east as possible, and reached Wismar on the Baltic on 2 May 1945, two hours ahead of the Red Army. He was there.

Unlike many, he came home to tell of it, but there was much he would not talk about, and I don't think he ever really recovered from the experience, on some level it haunted his whole life. The debt we owe such men can never be repaid, they went far from home to fight a monstrous evil, and won at terrible cost. We must honour and remember them well.

Dex, you're the second person to touch on the passing of great men who managed to survive that horror, today, the first prompted this rambling from me, at another site I haunt...

One of, if not the most poignant reason I stopped hanging around the Legion so much is, it is'nt the Legion without the Vets.

They've dropped the requirements to be a Member, drawing a younger crowd. But the worst part is, the old guys...and gals...are thinning out.

The boisterous laughs, and that old deep belly laugh from one such Vet I remember well, are gone or going.

The stories have turned from that of the old guys club and talk of those they remembered from those days. To stories of the woes of the day.

Maybe just as important, but just not the same.

I miss the stories, the pickled eggs and sausages being consumed at an alarming rate. Leaving the air heavy with the scent of bowel.

I've seen tears, heard men worn course with the ravages of time ball, when the memory of "Shorty" was brought to the surfice one more time.

The blurred and fading regimental tat's and ink of all sort, from all over the globe.

Enlisted men and Officers rubbing elbows. Sharing the remains of the day with each other.

The twilight of a generation of heroes and innovators comes to bear.

Nothing breaks my heart faster and harder then the sound of Taps and the drone of Amazing Grace on the pipes.

Soon, sadly soon, theirs will be the memories we carry on, to teach and pass on to ours, as an oral tradition carries on. Leaving them gone, but never forgotten.

When I say "Je Me Souviens", which I say so often, worrying me that I may wear out its significance. I mean it. I will remember, so will my sons, and theirs and so on.

We live in debt to a generation of men and women, that understood the necessity and honour in personal sacrifice.

Some say I glorify people that may not have been real heroes. I say stuff it. The memory is mine and mine alone to share as I see fit.

You wore the uniform, you shed your blood, you took the risks, felled, fought and survived. It matters not to I who won ribbons and metals. What matters is you did. You stood and you delivered when we needed it the most.

For that, you my heroes, get my undying love, respect and eternal debt of gratitude.

Such emotional and true words Bear. My grandfather fought in two wars, and came home to live a long life, my father fought and came home uninjured, and my brother fought in belgium and france, in world war 2, although injured, he also came home, to live out his life.
I was a little girl then, and wondered about him, and really didn't understand what
exactly, he was doing.
As the years pass, I gather the gratefullness and appreciation and admiration more
and more for all of those men and women, who did not have the chance to live out
their lives, and I too, live my life in full, knowing that because of them we have
our freedom and our great country to ourselves, in a democracy, and if it wasn't
for them, that might not be the case.

Thank you to all of them.

Huge sacrifice from those guys, it must have been hellish on those beaches.

We should remember the twenty or thirty thousand French civilians who were killed by allied bombing in that summer and the rapeing and looting by allied soldiers that followed. Was grampy a raper I wonder and where did that funny old clock really come from?

I took gramps down to the war memorial in Ottawa today for the ceremony. We started the morning off with breakfast at the jr. ranks mess at Cartier Square and then headed over to the memorial. The highlight of his day was when I introduced him to Walter Natynczyk, the CDS. The highlight for me, as always, was the sound of the pipers leading the march-past. They usually start a couple of blocks away, and get louder and louder as they approach. Sends shivers down my spine every time.

Thanks for the post Bear. I was aware of the date coming up all week, then this morning I got wrapped up in doing my own thing and completely forgot. Shame on me. Thanks for the nudge.