Burning with a flame bright beyond common understanding

I am a day late, so forgive me, but 71 years ago was the landing on the beaches of Normandy.  I don't know how many of those courageous soldiers considered themselves warriors (perhaps many) or poets (probably few), but to all of them I am thankful.  I just read this account of the first wave of soldiers approaching Omaha Beach, and it is humbling. It is a bit long, but I hope you will read it too.  It is both horrific and inspiring.  All of us living today can thank our lucky stars that on that day there were men who, in the words of the author of the article S.L.A. Marshall, "burned with a flame bright beyond common understanding."

Some revisionists make the argument, some better than others, that World War 2, particularly the fight against the Nazis since they had not directly attacked us, was not America's fight.  I myself have grappled with that argument in the past, and I have come to the conclusion that in the end free men could not live in a world where Nazism triumphed.  We cannot coexist with the tyrannical.  For that reason, we may always be on the wall, protecting freedom and the innocent from those who would enslave us.  May we continue to find the courage necessary to remain free.