The 75th Anniversary

Memories of World War II were still recent when I was young.  I played with plastic toy soldiers of World War II.  I watched reruns of Hollywood movies on the local New York City TV Channels - everything from Guadalcanal Diary to Twelve O'Clock High to Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

As an adult, I made the acquaintance of more movies - Casablanca, The Best Years of Our Lives,and even the German Das Boot made long after the war was over.

But now, as memories fade, it's time for the last important World War II anniversaries.

On June 6, 1944, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on a 50 mile stretch of French beaches at Normandy to begin one of the greatest invasions of all time.

There are many stories written by survivors of World War II.  Possibly few of those stories would ever have been written if not for D-Day, which celebrates its 75th anniversary today  On that day, some 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed beaches on the coastline of France.  Although some 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded on that day, others began the march across Europe to liberate the people.  Today is the 75th anniversary of that landing.

Now, the surviving soldiers of World War II are elderly, and dying.  Less than 3% of World War II veterans are still alive. Just in the past month, we have lost three Navaho code talkers. 

Many of the remains of the combat dead remained in France, where one of my cousin's spouses (of part French ancestry) makes a point of visiting cemeteries to honor them.  These are memorials to American dead but there are other graves and memorials for British, Canadian, Australian, French, Greek, citizens of New Zealand, Norwegian, Polish and others who gave their lives that day.

Women?  American women worked in various war factories back home, and we need to remember them.  My spouse's 107 year old aunt, who died last month, was one of them.

Normandy will be remembering throughout this summer.

This will be the last major D-Day commemoration.  To someone my age, this is sobering.

In my lifetime, the last Civil War veteran died (1956), the last Spanish-American War vet (1993), the last World War I veteran (2012) passed away. (Note, there are some veteran claims that are disputed - these dates seem to be the most reliable).   If I live long enough, I will see the last member of the Greatest Generation pass from our Earth.

That makes me sad.