I’ll start his posting of a collection of notable memories from around the blogosphere with some things I put together from Veteran’s Day.

Off the top, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s prayer from this day 65 years ago:

Thoughts from President Ronald W. Reagan:

“It’s been my responsibility, my duty and very much my honor to serve as Commander in Chief of this nation’s Armed Forces these past eight years. That is the most sacred, most important ask of the Presidency. Since our nation’s founding, the primary obligation of the national government has been the common defense of these United States. But as I have sought to perform this sacred task as best I could, I have done so with the knowledge that my role in this day-to-day-to-day effort, from sunrise to sunrise, every moment of every hour of every day of every year, is a glancing one compared to yours. But it’s not just your fellow Americans who owe you a debt. No, I believe many more do, for I believe that military service in the Armed Forces of the United States is a profound form of service to all humankind. You stand engaged in an effort to keep America safe at home, to protect our allies and interests abroad, to keep the seas and the skies free of threat. Just as America stands as an example to the world of the inestimable benefits of freedom and democracy, so too an America with the capacity to project her power for the purpose of protecting and expanding freedom and democracy abroad benefits the suffering people of the world.”

Ronald Glenn, writer for AmericasRight.com, presents the following historical survey (excerpted)…

This weekend will mark the 65th celebration of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the crossing of the English Channel by British and American Allied forces, the beginning of the liberation of western Europe from its occupation by Nazi Germany. Over the years, history has shown that D-Day was necessary to defeat the Nazis and to save western Europe from the oncoming Russians. The Russians had been fighting the Germans since June 21, 1941, involving the Russian people in the bloodiest, largest military front in Western history, including the disaster of WWI. This catastrophe occurred because WWII included vast numbers of civilians deaths, far outnumbering military deaths.

For most people the numbers are almost incomprehensible. The Nazi and Communist troops in WWII spent four years massacring thousands and burying them in mass graves; murdering and torturing prisoners, including women and children; and freezing to death during seventy-below-zero winters. The estimates vary, but as many as eight million Russian soldiers and 20 million civilians died. Russia lost forty percent of its cities, completely annihilated. A Soviet high school that graduated 100 males students in 1941, for example, might have had only four left alive by the end of the war.

The turning point in Europe in WWII was the defeat of the Nazi Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-43, one of the most horrific and heroic struggles an invaded nation ever fought. The Americans and British provided supplies to the Russians, in what one Russian journalist described as a pact whereby the Americans supplied the food and weapons and the Russians supplied the corpses. By D-Day, when America and Britain invaded Normandy, all the destruction on the eastern front had “torn the guts out of the German Army,” as Britain’s Winston Churchill described it. The German high command knew the end was in sight, and perhaps some in the German high command wanted to let the British and Americans have a free ride to Berlin so the Russians would not be allowed to have their revenge against Germany. …

If the Obama administration--or any other administration, as the erosion of freedom knows no single politician or party--begins to tax us at ninety percent, and confiscate our property in the name of ecology, and confiscate our guns, and draft our children into youth brigades, and we do nothing about it, no one will arrive on the beaches of America to save us. Then it will be everyone for himself, unless we are unified in revolution.

The men at of D-Day, our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers died to free others. If we forget their noble deaths, and allow our own enslavement not too many years later, it is because we Americans forgot to keep America free. My father told me as much weeks before his death in 1986 in a private chat.

“Remember,” he said, “I spent a year in Europe after the war ended. I met the Nazis and the Communists. Don’t let anybody tell you they are any different from each other. I couldn’t see any difference in them, and I had to deal with them every day.”

In 2009, we must discern between those who wish to keep America free and those who slowly and surreptitiously steal our freedom. Stay up-to-date on developments by reading and listening, and be alert to the real malevolence of this government against the people. You must begin to speak up in order to inform others around you and to instruct your elected representatives as to your demands that they carry out the people‘s mandate.

We ARE the government. Make the men who died at D-Day proud.

DefendOurFreedoms.net reposted the following “D-day Tribute:”

Encyclopedia Britannica

NORMANDY INVASION

May 1944 had been chosen at the conference in Washington in May 1943 as the time for the invasion. Difficulties in assembling landing craft forced a postponement until June, but June 5 was fixed as the unalterable date by Eisenhower on May 17. As the day approached and troops began to embark for the crossing, bad weather set in, threatening dangerous landing conditions. After tense debate, Eisenhower and his subordinates decided on a 24-hour delay, requiring the recall of some ships already at sea. Eventually, on the morning of June 5, Eisenhower, assured by chief meteorologist James Martin Stagg of a break in the weather, announced, “O.K. We’ll go.” Within hours an armada of 3,000 landing craft, 2,500 other ships, and 500 naval vessels—escorts and bombardment ships—began to leave English ports. That night 822 aircraft, carrying parachutists or towing gliders, roared overhead to the Normandy landing zones. They were a fraction of the air armada of 13,000 aircraft that would support D-Day. 

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January 1944 meeting of Operation Overlord Commanders, General Eisenhower, Walter B. Smith, Omar Bradley, Arthur Tedder, Bernard Montgomery, Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Bertram Ramsay. The Eisenhower Presidential Library

 GENERAL EISENHOWER’S MESSAGE SENT JUST PRIOR TO THE INVASION

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

-- Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

D-DAY AIRBORNE AND BEACH ASSAULT

The Normandy beaches were chosen by planners because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended than the obvious objective of the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance between Great Britain and the Continent. Airborne drops at both ends of the beachheads were to protect the flanks, as well as open up roadways to the interior. Six divisions were to land on the first day; three U.S., two British and one Canadian. Two more British and one U.S. division were to follow up after the assault division had cleared the way through the beach defenses.

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CHANCE MEETING BRINGS CAVALRY SERGEANT FACE-TO-FACE WITH D-DAY VETERAN

Sgt. 1st Class Steve Selvage of the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment gets an autograph from 91-year-old D-Day survivor Ralph Manley in Sainte Mere Eglise, France, June 1. The two met while Selvage was in town to participate in events commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

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AIRBORNE MUSEUM HOUSES ONE-OF-A-KIND ARTIFACTS
THAT HONOR HISTORIC JUMP DURING D-DAY INVASION

SAINTE MERE EGLISE, France -- This town loves paratroopers -- in particular, American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and the 101st Airborne Divisions.

It was those two divisions that liberated Sainte Mere Eglise June 7, 1944, making it the first town in France to be liberated during World War II.

To show their appreciation for the veterans, an Airborne Museum opened here in 1964. A non-profit organization, all proceeds go back into the museum to pay for upkeep, new exhibits or extensions. The money is also used to provide decorations and celebrations for the anniversary of D-Day, travel for veterans, and exhibitions outside France. A large donation was also made to The National World War II museum in New Orleans, La.

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SOLDIERS PREP TO SUPPORT D-DAY CEREMONIES FOR 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF INVASION

Senior staff members of Task Force Normandy 65 pose in front of a German gun post at Pointe du Hoc, France. Task Force Normandy 65 is in France providing support and ceremonial command and control for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, June 6. Pointe du Hoc is the site of the 2nd Ranger Battalion’s assault on a German stronghold during D-Day. Photo credit Sgt. Fay Conroy, 21st Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs

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NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

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AmericanThinker recounts the following bits of history:

They gave us ‘nothing less than full victory.’

June 6, 1944, “D-day,” is a day that lives in glory.

“D-day” in military history stands for the “day” of invasion. On this “D-day,” obscure beaches on the French coast of the English Channel became the hallowed ground on which heroic men fought and thousands died to end tyranny and liberate millions from Nazi oppression and death camps. These are the beaches renamed, remembered and revered as “Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno.”
Normandy is the most inspiring, humbling and historically important place to visit in France. Standing above Omaha Beach looking out across the English Channel from what was a Nazi cement bunker, provides a commanding view of what the allied forces faced that monumental and awesome day-”the longest day.”

Excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s “Directive No. 5l,” 3 November 1943, expose the resolute and seemingly invincible Nazi army entrenched against the allied forces. Hitler demanded defense of the coast of France at all costs:

If the enemy here succeeds in penetrating our defenses on a wide front, consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time. All signs point to an offensive against the Western Front of Europe no later than spring, and perhaps earlier.

For that reason, I can no longer justify the further weakening of the West in favor of other theaters of war. I have therefore decided to strengthen the defenses in the West, particularly at places from which we shall launch our long-range war against England. For those are the very points at which the enemy must and will attack; there-unless all indications are misleading-will be fought the decisive invasion battle.

During the opening phase of the battle, the entire striking power of the enemy will of necessity be directed against our forces manning the coast. Only an all-out effort in the construction of fortifications, an unsurpassed effort that will enlist all available manpower and physical resources of Germany and the occupied areas, will be able to strengthen our defenses along the coasts within the short time that still appears to be left to us.

Should the enemy nevertheless force a landing by concentrating his armed might, he must be hit by the full fury of our counterattack. For this mission ample and speedy reinforcements of men and materiel, as well as intensive training must transform available larger units into first-rate, fully mobile general reserves suitable for offensive operations. The counterattack of these units will prevent the enlargement of the beachhead, and throw the enemy back into the sea.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, commissioned our troops as they boarded planes, gliders and ships, great and small. He called them to nothing less than full victory:

Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations [not today's U.N.] have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

An invading army had not crossed the treacherous English Channel since 1688. The heroes of “D-Day” knew that the beaches of Normandy had to be taken or else. There would be no throwing them back into the sea:

It was to be the largest combined, sea, air, and land military operation in history, made up of three million men, 13,000 aircraft, 1,200 warships, 2,700 merchant ships, and 2, 500 landing craft. Fifteen minutes after midnight on June 6, the first of 23,000 U.S., British, and Canadian paratroopers and glider troops plunged into the darkness over Normandy, and the Allied liberation of France was underway. Just before dawn, Allied aircraft and ships bombed the French coast along the Baie de la Seine, and at daybreak, the bombardment ended as 135,000 Allied troops stormed ashore at five landing sites. Despite the formidable German coastal defenses, beachheads were achieved at all five landing locations. At one site-Omaha Beach-German resistance was especially strong, and the Allied position was only secured after hours of bloody fighting by the Americans assigned to it. By the evening, some 150,000 American, British, and Canadian troops were ashore, and the Allies held about 80 square miles. Over the next five days, Allied forces in Normandy moved steadily forward in all sectors against fierce German resistance. On June 11, the five landing groups met up, and Operation Overlord-the code name for the Allied invasion of northwestern Europe-proceeded as planned.

By nightfall on June 6, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded, but more than 100,000 had made it ashore, securing French coastal villages.

This Saturday would be a good time to read the citations of the 12 Medal of Honor Recipients of the Normandy Invasion. Five were awarded posthumously. They embodied the words of Jesus: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

And finally a RedState author posted the following picture from the World War II Memorial on the National Mall:

-Phil