There is a saying that “… we should remember events in history so that we don’t repeat them”. Today, June 6th, is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion when Allied troops stormed the beaches in Normandy, France and where so many paid the ultimate price.
This year’s remembrance of D-Day seems to carry a special symbolic resonance as we see very few of those veterans still here as the pages of time turn and those Canadians who served in the regiments of World War II, come to an end.
Once they were young men serving as soldiers, in the navy and as airmen … all fighting for what they believed in, freedom.
D-Day was the greatest seaborne invasion in history aimed at 80 kilometres of mostly flat, sandy beach along the Normandy coast and Canada’s objective was right in the middle.
While we remember those veterans today, June 6th, we should also remember those military men and women who serve today in battlefields far from home. They have similarities to those veterans of World War II. They still leave their families and their homes to fight an enemy, do what they believe in and help others gain freedom.
