June 6 will mark the 80th anniversary of the Allies’ D-Day invasion of France during World War II. As many years as it has been, most of us here today are familiar with D-Day only through Hollywood, whether it be the film, “Saving Private Ryan,” or the HBO miniseries, “Band of Brothers.”
Two years ago, following a trade show in Paris, I was fortunate to take a few vacation days, rented a car, and drove to the far northwest of France to visit Pierrick Benoist, an exchange student in our home my senior year at Hagerstown High School. He and his wife, Marie-Cecile, live in a 200 year-old home on the Atlantic coast near the border between France’s historic regions of Brittany and Normandy.
While visiting them, Pierrick took me to the Brittany-American cemetery, where he has “adopted,” by periodically decorating, the graves of two Indiana soldiers who are buried there. When we went there, he took flowers from his garden, along with the U.S. and Indiana flags for each grave.
The day before D-Day, General Dwight Eisenhower sent his Order of the Day which began, “Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”
The night before D-Day, 13,348 paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions of the U.S. Army, along with paratroopers from the British and Canadian armies, were dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy. This included soldiers of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, whose E Company (or Easy Company) surviving members were interviewed throughout “Band of Brothers.” The mission was to destroy as much as possible the German defenses on the high ground above the beaches.
Pierrick drove us into Normandy, where we first visited the town of Sainte-Mère-Église (meaning “Holy Mother Church” in French). While most Americans know of the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, fewer are familiar with what happened in this small town.
Thirty paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division landed in Sainte-Mère-Église. Private John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped from his aircraft. His parachute got tangled in the pinnacle of the church tower. He pretended to be dead for two hours. But German soldiers eventually cut down his cords and took him prisoner. Four hours later, he escaped through a window and rejoined his regiment, which liberated the town. Today a replica of John Steele and his parachute hangs from the church! Thanks to his efforts, and those of other members of the 82nd “All-American” Airborne Division, Sainte-Mère-Église became the first town liberated after D-Day.
Pierrick then drove us to the Normandy American Cemetery. It sits peacefully atop the cliffs above Omaha Beach. On Omaha Beach, they have left some of the Germans’ giant steel barricades, which made it even more difficult for Allied landing craft, not to mention the many exiting soldiers.
General Eisenhower ended his Order of the Day with, “And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
We cannot fully appreciate what members of the Greatest Generation went through on D-Day, and elsewhere, to secure our freedom and that of so many others. On this Memorial Day, let’s especially remember those we lost in World War II.
Nate LaMar, an international manager by profession and
a West Point graduate, also served as Henry County Council President from 2009-2019. This is the transcript of his speech
he will present at Henry County’s Memorial Day Ceremony.
