D-Day plus 75 years. Words fail me but I tried...

This week we mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. It is safe to say those men who stormed ashore that fateful morning made a difference in our lives today. I have been to Omaha Beach five times. I am always overwhelmed, awed, moved, and grateful. Everytime. Watch the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan and then walk the ground at Omaha. You will be changed. It happens to everyone we take there when we graduate a class from our Advanced Leadership Programs. Everytime.

On June 5 I participated in a fly-over in Southampton, England. It was the largest air armada since D-Day. Several hundred aircraft. The morning of the sixth I participated in a fly-by for the dignitaries embarked on the USS George Washington anchored just off the coast of Normandy. It was rainy, the clouds were low. The ceiling was 500 feet and only the helicopters could fly-by during the wreath laying ceremony. Later that day my ship arrived in Le Havre and I was off on a tour of the battlefields with the USO. As history major, a military history buff with a father who fought in World War Two, this was one of the best days of my life. 

I took this picture on Utah Beach June 6, 1994. D-day plus 50 years. 25 years ago. I wish I had a better camera. It is an American veteran, wearing his uniform, looking out to sea. Looking to where the allies came ashore. With him perhaps a son, or grandson. I wonder the stories. I wish I could have gotten closer. I have taken many pictures over the years and I cannot tell you about them but this one stays etched in my mind’s eye. 

Many years later I got closer. Not to the veteran in the picture but to a few others. I volunteered to escort an honor flight of veterans flying from NC to DC for their day of glory in 2010. I got to know two of my veterans very well. One passed away shortly after we returned from DC and his family remarked to me that the trip changed him. He landed on D plus two. Our trip to DC unlocked him to tell stories he never told. Evidently, in telling them to me during our time together he felt comfort and decided to tell his family. What a gift! They spent hours of his final days going through old photos, letters and clippings with him filling in all the details for every member of the family. I remember his anguish at the World War Two Memorial in Washington. Telling me he was not a hero. As we stood in the rain that day at the Memorial, he wept and said, “the real hero’s are the ones who did not come home.” But they all said that. All of the ones who came home said that. I hugged him. We both cried. He told me of sitting on a dead cow one morning, a dead freaking cow, eating cold food from a can, after an all-night firefight. Dead Germans and comrades in the mud around him. He looked skyward to see our B-17s heading to Germany. He paused telling the story as a tear came to his eye and he went on to say, “later that day, flying back to England there just weren’t as many as there were in the morning. Those boys were heroes. They did it every day.” 

My other veteran passed away in 2018. He was my friend. Once a quarter we would meet for a meal to talk about just about anything. We laughed and I made him feel young. We cried and he made me feel special. He chose to be cremated in an act of practicality that one might expect from a 93 year old member of the Greatest Generation. I was an honorary pallbearer at his memorial. It is one of the greatest honors ever given to me. 

By now you are probably wondering when I hit with you with the leadership message. Yes, that is often the case. In fact, there is a term called newsjacking that teaches businesses to take advantage of news. It is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story to generate tons of media coverage and social media engagement. Yeah, well screw that. This isn’t about my business. It is about me doing my small part in writing, and you doing your small part in reading. It is about D-Day 75. It is about them. It is about my veterans on honor flight, my father who enlisted in the Navy in 1941 at age 16. My Uncle Jim who survived when 1100 others didn’t. The sinking of his troop ship, HMT Rohna, is the largest loss of US troops at sea due to enemy action in a single incident yet it remained classified for too long. I could go on. You get the point. This is not about you or me. 

If you can’t make it to Europe go to Gettysburg and walk the ground at Little Round Top. Same feelings. In fact, I cannot explain why but on Jun 5, 2019 I will visit Gettysburg. It is as close as I can get to honoring D-Day and when you really think about it. Those two battles are among the most significant in our history as a nation. 

There is so much nastiness and discord in our nation today. Yet this is so much goodness too. Consider the words of a South Korean Army Officer from 1989. We met on a bus and started to chat. As the ride came to an end he looked around, to make sure no one was listening, and whispered to me, “I envy you.” What, me? Why me? “Because you have freedom” What me? You have freedom too. “No, you have real freedom…...” 

We are far from perfect. We remain a work in progress. I believe we are the greatest democracy on the face of the earth. I cannot predict the future but I will honor our past, as you have by reading this far, and hope the many sacrifices made on our behalf find us worthy of what we inherited. That 75 years from now people will pause to remember that we did something actually worth remembering.