D-Day Reflections
D-Day.
Me and June 6th seem to meet each other in funny ways. As a military history geek, I remember reading excerpts from Cornelius Ryan’s incredible book “The Longest Day” when I was in junior high school. That was probably my first real exposure to military history as told from the point of view of the people who lived it, rather than dry, prosaic facts and figures.
Then, I became a logistics readiness officer and D-Day became a classroom study, a textbook example of the good, the bad and the ugly of 20th century military logistics. I can rattle off the numbers: 153,000 troops landed, 650 warships, more than 10,400 airplanes all working in (somewhat) solid harmony to effect the greatest amphibious assault in human history.
Then, I “met” Harvey.
I say that in quotes because I’ve never actually met him. He passed away years ago. But, in the hearts of his family, he lives on. Harvey was at Normandy in 1944. He operated one of the transport craft that landed American heroes on the most heavily defended mile of sand on the planet. Harvey was a hero. He was an uncommon man.
But his legacy was not solely captured by the medals he earned, or the history he lived, or even the lives he saved that day. Like so many others of that generation, after the bullets had stopped flying, and the bombs had stopped dropping, and the world was again at peace, Harvey returned home and resumed his life. He married, had kids, grew old, and passed away nearly fourteen years ago.
Today, Harvey’s tombstone is surrounded by his fellow comrades, from D-Day to Fallujah. One of his closest “neighbors” is a guy a few years older than me, who died in Afghanistan in the earliest days of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is in good company.
And so, on the 74th anniversary of D-Day, I want to thank those who have introduced me to Harvey, my wife’s grandfather. I want to thank them for telling me his stories, for showing me his medals and memorabilia, and most of all for sharing with me stories of a good man, a loving daddy and grandpa, and a truly great person who, though I’ve never met him, I look up to.
