They were incrediby brave
by digby
If you’ve ever been to Omaha beach (or any of the beaches where they landed) you can see just how brave a person had to be to try to get on that shore with the guns overhead. You had to know your chances were very slim. But they did it:
I took this photo of Sgt Major Robert Blatnik 5 years ago. This was the stretch of Omaha beach in Normandy where he came ashore on #DDay. He commanded 901 men. Head count 24 hours later and about 500 yards inland, they had 387. 500 yards. Let that soak in. #neverforget pic.twitter.com/bYYWw30ZTU— Doug Dunbar (@cbs11doug) June 6, 2019
This is why the WWII generation didn’t fetishize their military service even though a vast number of them participated. It was gruesome. They just wanted to get the job done and then try to put it behind them. I don’t spend a lot of time venerating the Greatest Generation. I grew up with them, was raised by them — my father was in the South Pacific — and they were far from perfect. But millions of them did rise to the occasion when it was necessary. I assume the same thing would happen today. Let’s hope we never have to test that assumption.
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