I don’t have any personal connection to D-Day. I don’t know anyone who landed on the Northern shores of France that day, or flew support missions as a precursor or over the battlefield. Though I would love to meet someone who served during that action, oddly I never have. I can’t even imagine the composite of emotions churning among those waves 70 years ago: Relief for having finally arrived? Horror for what was ahead? Fear? Excitement? Bravado, Determination, Resignation, Confusion? It’s a given that these men were trained for this but there was little in our country’s history to draw upon for method. And these men, for the most part, were young. There was clearly nothing by way of experience in their own past. I’ve given this a lot of thought and still, I cannot imagine.

General Eisenhower was a brilliant mastermind but not a war-monger. History tells us that war may have been what he knew and what he was good at, but not what he wanted. His meticulously prepared strategy and his heart-felt concern for the troops is well documented. I am as thankful for, and as in-awe of men like Eisenhower as I am the men on the front lines.

Some 17 years after D-Day my family moved to France with my Dad who was in the Army (he had also previously been a Marine). I was very young but I could distinctly feel the abiding respect that the French people had for the United States military. It made me very proud of my Dad but at the time I was too young understand exactly why. 15 years later as an Army MP myself, I again had the opportunity to visit France. The local population seemed to have replaced their solemn respect with a certain distaste and contempt. Again I didn’t understand but that didn’t stop me from still being proud.

I’ll always be proud of having been in the military but not so much for myself, my service was sincere but unremarkable. I’m proud for those that came before, and for those who are serving now. I’m proud of our military’s history of cooperation and assistance to others, and proud of each and every individual soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and guardsman’s noble intention to defend what is good and what is right.

Sadly I know there probably isn’t a lot of time left but there’s nothing I’d like more than to talk with someone who was there on D-Day. I guess really I only want to listen.