A 65-Year Memory: Not to Be Forgotten

One of the greatest wartime events in history was the Invasion of Normandy - D-Day - on Jun 6, 1944. It was the beginning of the end, as they say, of World War II.

One of the movies that deeply affected me in my high school years was the drama made about this- The Longest Day. It had a huge list of stars from Eddie Albert and Paul Anka, through Sean Connery and Henry Fonda to Rod Steiger and John Wayne.

Until Saving Private Ryan came along it was the ultimate story of D-Day. I can still remember the emotion and feelings in the early 60s to seeing D-Day pictures, whether in old pictures, newsreels or movies. It wasn't even quite 20 years after the event at that time. The reactions to it were still visceral, profound, stirring, and frightening. They were not history or on-screen drama. These were still recent events even for those of us who were born a few years later when the ones who could come home returned to build their American dream.

It's hard to recreate that. There has been nothing like it since- for which we should be grateful. So today, as we hopefully will take some time to pause and remember, may we also say a prayer that the day might come when we will learn war no more. I can think of no greater memorial to those who fought and died in that now long-ago war and in all the ones ever since.

Here's an old official video made about D-Day: