We Band of Brothers

The humorous social commentator Will Rogers somewhat dryly observed that Americans have short memories and that’s what keeps politicians in office. He is probably right. We do have short memories and politicians take advantage of our forgetfulness. Americans tend to be obsessed with the present and for good reason. The pressures of work demand much from us, and then we have bills to pay, children to raise and educate, and countless other daily responsibilities that need attention. We simply don’t have time to think about what happened yesterday, let alone last year.

While our lives are rightfully preoccupied with day to day challenges, from time to time it’s a good idea to pause and consider what came before us. The lifestyle and privileges that we cherish and so often take for granted, which are the envy of the world, did not just happen. Today’s America exists in large part because of the contributions and sacrifices of men and women who smoothed the way for us. We may not know their names, but we must never forget what they did. There are chapters in our American story that deserve to be remembered and told over and over again.

One of those chapters tells the story of the largest amphibious invasion in military history—the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944—D-Day.   That day’s importance stands in close proximity to the signing of the Declaration of Independence as one of America’s most hallowed historical events. If the Normandy landings had failed on that momentous day, the world, and our country, might be a very different place. The American saga has many great chapters, but there are no pages in our history that reveal the steely character of our country more than what happened on the beaches of Normandy, the hedgerows in France and the forests in Germany.  

The world was at war in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and the Japanese Empire were wreaking havoc in Europe, North Africa, the Pacific, and Asia. Liberal democracies, with such cherished values as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, were in peril all across the globe.  Not until the United States entered the maelstrom did the tide finally begin to turn, but even then, it took more than three years of fighting and the deaths of over 400,000 Americans to defeat tyranny.

Most of us living today were not even alive then. Sadly, many in our country today have little historical understanding or appreciation for the sacrifices that Americans made during those pivotal years of world history.  The soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who saw combat during the war are rapidly leaving the stage. Most of the surviving World War II veterans are now in their late 90s; a few are over 100-years-old. Within a short period of time, their voices will no longer be heard, and this crucial chapter in the American story will be left for us to tell and retell, so that our nation will forever remember.

While there were many significant turning points during the war, many historians point to the Normandy invasion as the single most decisive moment in World War II. Over 100,000 troops from the U.S., the British Commonwealth, and her allies stormed the beaches of France on that fateful day 80 years ago. On D-Day alone, 2,501 Americans were killed. In the days and weeks that followed, over 73,000 Allied forces would sacrifice their lives in defense of liberty.

Normandy American Cemetery

There are 9,388 graves in the American Cemetery in Normandy, France. Most of the graves are filled with the remains of young men not more than 21 or 22-years-old. They were young, brave men, who had their entire lives before them, but died fighting for their country. (The cemetery also holds the remains of four young American women.)

This week I have spent time thinking about these courageous warriors. I have mourned their deaths and thought of how deeply their families grieved. As the paratroopers jumped out of their planes, and soldiers exited their landing crafts, while pilots flew over their targets, trying to avoid antiaircraft fire, I wondered what was going through their young minds. They were well-trained, for sure, but they were also just kids. They watched as their friends were killed, sometimes just inches away. They saw the horrors of modern warfare yet, undaunted, pushed ahead. They gave their lives in defense of democracy, in defense of freedom.

In 1998, I sat in a packed theater to watch Saving Private Ryan. Before the movie began, I looked around and noticed that the majority of people in the theater were elderly, perhaps in their late 70s or 80s. No doubt many in the audience were veterans who had fought in World War II.

Saving Private Ryan, 1998, Director: Steven Spielberg

The movie is a fictional account of a squad of Army Rangers who attempt to find Private James Francis Ryan and bring him safely home after his three brothers had been killed in battle. The scenes of death portrayed on the screen, the emotions of young, homesick soldiers, the confusion and savagery of hand-to-hand combat are not fictional. They are all too real. There is nothing glorious about war.

The conclusion of the movie showed a grateful Ryan, now an elderly man, kneeling in the Normandy cemetery before a cross, marking the burial spot of one of the fallen Rangers who had rescued him. Through the sacrifice of this Ranger, and others like him, Ryan had been privileged to live a full and meaningful life. The camera slowly pulled back, showing the hundreds, then thousands of crosses, mixed with a few Stars of David, that revealed the cost of war.

Somewhere I have read that either war must end or we will. That has never been truer than in the so-called modern world, where technologically advanced weapon systems make no distinction between combatants and civilians, as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine have clearly and tragically shown.

The movie ended and the theater lights came on. Almost everyone stayed seated. The theater was quiet for several minutes. Then slowly people began to make their way to the exits in an almost reverent silence. It was the most memorable moment I have ever spent in a theater.

2001 HBO American War Drama Miniseries

A few years later, I watched the HBO series, The Band of Brothers. It, too, told the story of the D-Day invasion but from the perspective of the 101st Airborne. In each episode several of the surviving paratroopers shared a few comments about their experience fighting in Europe. One of the paratroopers quoted a line from Shakespeare that described the comradery he felt with the men who fought alongside him:

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

(From Shakespeare’s Henry V)

Failure to honor the veterans of that terrible war would be to dishonor ourselves, our country, and all that our great nation stands for.