Wednesday, June 6, 2007

06 June 2007: A look back at D-day


You don’t need to be a history buff to know the significance of today’s date. Just in the past few years we saw the release of “Saving Private Ryan” on the big screen. Later we saw the excellent HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers”. Central to both of these productions was 6 June 1944. That was the date of Operation Overlord, which was the codeword for the cross-channel allied invasion of occupied Europe. Most people refer to it as “D-day”. It was the largest amphibious assault in military history. The opening of a second front signaled the cataclysmic doom of Nazi Germany. There are many good books on the subject and I recommend you pick up any of them and learn more about this very fascinating time. I say this because I’ve been quizzing my team and am finding out just how little they actually know about this subject. Let me take a moment to provide some examples.

Back on Memorial Day my team took the afternoon to watch “Saving Private Ryan”. It is a very good movie but not without flaws. Every time I watch it I notice something else. While watching the movie I realized I wanted to ask my team a question regarding the story it told. I decided to wait until today. The question I asked the team was whether or not the story in the movie was true. I was amazed. By unanimous response they said the movie was a true story. Some of them were passionately convinced of this. I hated to break the bad news. Although the movie is told with the backdrop of history, the story is entirely fictitious. There was no Private Ryan or a mission to find him. Even the tumultuous battle for the bridge at the end is made up. At best, the story is very loosely based on a soldier in the 101st Airborne who lost three of his brothers in combat. That’s where the similarities between truth and fiction end.

Another myth I found my team believing was that D-day was an all American enterprise. They were wrong again. There were five invasion beaches designated for the operation – Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold, and Sword. Only two of these – Utah and Omaha – were American. The other three were British and Canadian. It was truly a masterstroke of Allied cooperation on land, sea, and air. What baffles the minds of operational planners today is that the entire operation was coordinated without e-mail, spreadsheets, or power point. There were no “power point rangers” on the SHAEF staff. There are twice as many personnel on the Multi National Force – Iraq staff today as there was on SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) staff for D-day planning.

I could go on and on but I’m limited by time and space. D-day was sixty-three years ago today. Other than passing notice there were no events at LSAA that signified this important date. Soldiers went about their business just like the soldiers did so many years ago. A common bond exists between those soldiers of D-day and the soldiers of today. Just like their predecessors, soldiers of today are extremely loyal to one another. They have an intense belief in what they do and want to succeed in their mission. In their free time they try to disappear from the war around them and have as much fun as possible. There is a feeling of homesickness gnawing at their guts constantly. They’ve all seen and experienced things that their friends back home will never understand. That’s why when they go home they won’t tell “war stories” to people who can’t relate. However, they will always open back up about their experiences to those they shared them with. Call it a clique if you’d like. I prefer to call it a brotherhood.

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