The following thoughts on the significance of D-Day is excerpted from an email I received last Friday from The Fellowship of St. James ~
The exquisite beauty of the headstones of Normandy’s military cemeteries together bear witness to a deep awareness in man that warfare lies immovably at the center of the universe: there is warfare in heaven; there is a sword brought by the Son of Man; fire cast on the earth; a battle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces; the battle front between good and evil in each heart. No victory without dying. No gain with sacrifice. Across the centuries, our battlefields should direct our eyes from earth to heaven, even as we respectfully salute the fallen. We hear the call, “Onward, Christian soldiers” to spiritual battle, not earthly. We await the final trumpet, the last command, when Normandy’s fallen together shall rise. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess: Greater love hath no Man than this Jesus, the Lion of Judah, who has conquered.
~ James M. Kushiner ~ Exec. Director,
“The Fellowship of St. James”
Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial
The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach (one of the landing beaches of the Normandy Invasion) and the English Channel. It covers 172 acres (70 ha), and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. Included are graves of Army Air Corps crews shot down over France as early as 1942.
Only some of the soldiers who died overseas are buried in the overseas American military cemeteries. When it came time for a permanent burial, the next of kin eligible to make decisions were asked if they wanted their loved ones repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S., or interred at the closest overseas cemetery.
The cemetery is located on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach (one of the landing beaches of the Normandy Invasion) and the English Channel. It covers 172 acres (70 ha), and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. Included are graves of Army Air Corps crews shot down over France as early as 1942.
Only some of the soldiers who died overseas are buried in the overseas American military cemeteries. When it came time for a permanent burial, the next of kin eligible to make decisions were asked if they wanted their loved ones repatriated for permanent burial in the U.S., or interred at the closest overseas cemetery.
[Source: Wikipedia]
“We have sent men and women from the armed forces of the
United States to other parts of the world throughout
the past century to put down oppression […]
And when all those conflicts were over, what did we do?
Did we stay and conquer? […]
No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead.
And that is the kind of nation we are.”
~ Colin Powell, Secretary of State ~ 2002
