Today we commemorate D-Day, the historic allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. This morning my brother forwarded me a letter he received from Captain Mark O'Brien, a close friend of his and a U. S. Navy judge advocate presently serving in Iraq. His letter is so poignant and thoughtful that I decided to publish it in this forum. Captain O’Brien wrote:
"I was thinking of the subject this morning and it occurred to me that D-Day was 64 years ago. When we were born, WWII had ended less than 10 years earlier. Putting that in perspective, Desert Storm, which seems like yesterday to me, was 17 years ago. Seventeen years after WWII was 1962. Our parents’ generation came home from the largest, deadliest, most far reaching war the world has ever seen and by the time I was 7 they had rebuilt the world and acted as if the war didn’t happen. Yet for tens of millions of Americans (who fought in it, worked to support it, lost loves ones to it or just prayed for its end) it had radically altered their lives but they simply carried on without any demands for compensation or claims as victims. They gave our generation and the ones that have followed the most prosperous blessed land God ever graced the earth with. Sadly, today only a handful of people will remember the countless millions of sacrifices made in order for us to enjoy what we have today. So we must remember to say a prayer in thanksgiving for all of those who gave us so much."
