Entry #653393, added on 06-06-09 @ 12:28 pm EDT
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| D-Day Remembered | Entry #653393 |
Title: D-Day Remembered
Date: June 6, 2009, Saturday
Thought: We live in a different age with different values as well as interests. The significance of that time in our history is now lost to the history books and to stories told by old folks to impatient young ears.
Jog: Bill Clark was twenty years old when he died. He grew up in Tennessee, in Huntingdon, which is half-way between Nashville and Memphis. Due south of Huntingdon, about twenty minutes, is the little town of Parkers Crossroads, where a battle between the Blue and Gray was fought during the American Civil War. He grew up steeped in the tradition of the South; he was keenly aware of the battlefields which lay around him, reminding him of our heritage and the precious price to be paid by war. Bill Clark died on a battlefield in Normandy, France, on June 6th, 1944. The place was called Omaha Beach.
Bill’s family never really accepted his death. They didn’t get a chance to say good-bye; there never was a funeral. Although they did not know it, his body was buried in a cemetery in France, dedicated to fallen warriors of that battle. Sixty-three years after the tragedy of his death, a tragedy shared by 2,374 men, Bill came home—in a way. The dog tags he wore were uncovered in the beach at Normandy, after sixty-three years. They were weathered and blackened with age, but his name, identification number, religion, and blood type were still clearly visible. Over the course of time, they were eventually returned to his family.
As I read the article accounting this remarkable story, I was struck by the ages of the participants. There were comments by his cousins Lota and Ava, seventy-nine years and eighty-four years of age, respectively. I was reminded that this battle, which was fought by young men, is quickly running out of survivors. In a few years there will be none left. I remember reading somewhere that the average age of the soldier on Omaha beach was twenty-five. That would put them at being around ninety years old today. It was interesting that the article said the average age of the German soldier, serving in Normandy at that time, was around thirty-two. There likely are very few survivors from those who were counted as our enemy of that time.
Today is June 6th, the anniversary of the battle that we have come to commonly refer to as D-Day. I suspect that very few will stop during their day and remember the significance of that day. Many of that generation are now gone and the younger folks have other more pressing things on their minds. We live in a different age with different values as well as interests. The significance of that time in our history is now lost to the history books and to stories told by old folks to impatient young ears. Tom Brokaw was right when he called them “The Greatest Generation.” He said in fact, “this is the greatest generation any society has produced,” noting that this generation fought not for fame and recognition, but because it was the right thing to do. Many people may argue against this position, but I won’t be one of them. My mom and dad were a part of it; my dad was one of those young men who left his rural home and fought in the great conflict the history books call the Second World War. Somehow, after seeing their example, I agree with Brokaw.
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