Excerpt:
The first week of June is crammed full of historic military anniversaries. We commemorate the Allied D-Day assault against the Nazis on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. The Israeli-Arab 6-Day War began on June 5, 1967. Israeli jet pilots destroyed Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981. The Marshall Plan was introduced as a Cold War defense, on June 5, 1947.
Yet a US Navy battle this same week, just 6 months after Pearl Harbor and a full 2 years before D-Day, goes largely unnoticed, lost down the memory hole; yet it certainly represents "the greatest naval victory in history” and perhaps the pivotal event in world military history since the Battle of Little Round Top at Gettysburg in July 1863.
It is the Battle of Midway, which, like Gettysburg, occurred over a three-day period, June 4-6, 1942.
Doug Powers over at The Powers That Be has provided a detailed post with links in remembrance of D-Day. Thanks Doug! Saved me a lot of typing, my friend!
I agree with Doug that President Ronald Reagan's speech on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day stands out as one of the best, ever!
As Doug pointed out in his blogpost, the words and attitudes of that era seem to be, unfortunately, lost upon the liberal left in this country.
Doug writes:
There’s no better way to help us remember than with the speech that Ronald Reagan spoke to D-Day veterans on June 6th, 1984, on the 40th anniversary of the invasion — a speech that contained these words:You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
More poignant words from the speech:
Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''
Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.
HT: The Powers That Be
Scylla and Charybdis
Reagan Foundation.org
Trackback URL: http://haloscan.com/tb/douggells/1684
Posts
3 comments:
I join you, Christine, in taking my hat off to all the veterans of D-Day, WWII, and all the rest.
Their work, blood, sweat sacrifice and tears will never be forgotten.
Midway is a very important and overlooked battle in WWII. While our defeat of the Japanese was inevitable given the relative strengths of each country, at Midway the US sank the majoirty of the Japanese aircraft carriers, (I think 5 out of 6), while losing only 1-2 of our own. While our industrial base could replace such losses, the Japanese could not. Without the ability to project air power, they were pretty much limited to defending an over-extended empire.
A little known fact about Midway is that our losses in terms of aircraft were so horrific that the government refused to publish correct numbers for fear that most people would regard the battle as a loss akin to Pearl Harbor.
Also, George Bush Sr. was shot down while flying a torpedo boat and attacking the Japanese fleet, proving that at least one member of that family fired a shot in anger during war-time. Or at least tried to.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Doug and Limpy99.
I'm currently reading a book called The Next World War by Grant Jeffrey. It's a fascinating and informative read.
I'm in the chapter where Jeffrey writes about the current radical Muslim war against the West as being prophesied in the Bible.
This same chapter mentions the fact that June 7, 2006 was the date that al-Zarqawi was killed by U.S. troops in Iraq. This adds one more great U.S. military victory to the list of historical military anniversaries during the week of June 4-7.
Post a Comment