Ted Poe: “The seas were high and seasickness was rampant. The sky was gloomy and dark, and the rain was blindingly hard. The sun…”

“The seas were high and seasickness was rampant. The sky was gloomy and dark, and the rain was blindingly hard. The sun was hidden from the beaches below as 63,000 GIs, with thousands of our allies, stormed landing sites called Utah, Omaha, Gold, and Juno. The average age of the American soldier was 20; 2,500 of them died on the first day. It was June 6, 1944. It was D-day in World War II. It was a noble cause: free Europe from the Nazis. But today, the bootprints, the red crimson beaches of blood of the U.S. soldier are gone. The sea is calm, peaceful, as if it never happened. But at the top of the cliffs of Normandy, France, 9,387 white glistening crosses and Stars of David of the American fallen shine as an eternal memory that here on this spot the Americans fought and gave all. They came. They died. They liberated. We remember they were soldiers once, for the worst casualty of war is to be forgotten. And that's just the way it is. ____________________”