80 Years Gone By Now

 So after a few years of dithering around, and thinking the Nazis weren't THAT serious about taking over the world, the US finally realized crap was getting real. And 80 years ago today they launched, with our Brit allies, the largest military invasion in history: the Normandy Landings, commonly known as D Day.

It was a bloody mess, of course, but marked the beginning of the end of WW II in Europe. In the Pacific, it took a couple of atom bombs, which the US were careful to make sure killed no more than the number killed in Pearl Harbor -- since any more deaths would have been genocide, per the idiots protesting Israel's war in Gaza now. Oh boy.

But back to Europe. My Dad, in the Army during the War, said "Dumb luck" kept him stateside and alive. He had orders to ship out to what was to become the Battle of the Bulge, and likely would NOT have come back, but The Big Man had other plans, and here I am, sitting at a computer decades later.

I always wanted to visit Normandy, and got the chance in 2018. We traveled to France with Loni and Mike, which was excellent, as Mike knows WW II history as well as most professors. It was a trip we will always remember.

We hired a tour guide, an affable Brit from Birmingham, who was living in Normandy like many of his countrymen, since you can buy old estates there cheaply, as long as you restore them. He was wonderful -- taking us to all the important sights, and giving us a true feel of the events of the battle.

Of course, we ended the day in the famous cemetery, with the many crosses and some Stars of David marking the graves of the fallen soldiers. When you hear "Taps" played, if you don't cry, you have no feeling for America.

After Normandy, the trip was less solemn, touring much of the central and northern parts of the country, and ending in Paris. We stayed at two different districts -- the second near the Folies, which we happily attended as the tourists we were. Our hotel was a high class brothel back in the day -- the manager said it was where gentlemen met "ladies of leisure." I asked if Mike and I got a discount -- we brought our own ladies of leisure. We did not.

But man -- that Greatest Generation. I used to ask my father if he thought of dodging the draft, when he was called up. It wasn't even a thought -- he was an American man, and it was his duty. Simple as that. And it was "for the duration, " which for him ended in mid-1945, when he got to meet my sister for the first time. In 1948 came my second sister, and I  bookended the Baby Boom of my family in 1961.

And it was all because of D Day, and the bravery of those soldiers.

I'll reflect on them today, but also with some guilt -- the mess we made of this great nation. We have 340 million people, and the best we can do for President is pit an elderly narcissist against a failing nicer guy? I fear the effects of the Administrations of both of them.

Hopefully it's just the bottom of a cycle, and things get better. I have grandkids and hope to have more. I pray our nation does better in the coming years.

But for today: thanks. I think of scaling those tall cliffs I stood upon, under a barrage of fire, and knowing you just had to push forward. And they did, and we prevailed. The beginning of the end of WW II.