Military Minds, is the source of our 2013 post on D-Day. It is the largest organization in the world raising awareness of the stigma around Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Their mission of support and constant peer reminder to show warriors that they are not alone in the aftermath of war, of deployment.
Their ‘reprinted’ post today honors those on the front lines on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
MilSuccessNet’s team chose this post because Military Minds which “began in Canada (where our editor is from) and now also serves veterans in U.S.A., Australia, U.K. , New Zealand, Germany and other nations that have participated in multiple conflicts over the past decades.”
It honors the past and supports today’s veterans now battling the stigma of PTSD and its daily realities for them. Check out their You Are Not Alone campaign, amongst other programs on their website.
And, June is also PTSD Awareness Month, Lest we forget… any of it.. and now.. in “Kevin’s” own words from his post, found on the organizations 52,000 member Facebook page….
“Today is D-Day. Shortly after midnight on June 6th, 1944 Airborne units of the combined American, British, and Canadian Armies began landing in Normandy, France. 24,000 Paratroopers and Glider Troops descended into darkness. At 630am, the landings began on the coast, with 5 Divisions attacking along 80km (50 miles) of beach on the French Normandy coast. The amphibious landings were the largest military operation ever mounted, with over 160,000 soldiers landing on June 6th alone: 73,000 Americans, 61, 715 British, and 21,400 Canadians. There were 195,700 Naval personnel in over 5000 ships. This was covered by a blanket of fighters so thick, that only 2 Luftwaffe fighters penetrated to the beaches on D-Day.
The first day alone saw the relentless slaughter of 2000 Americans on Omaha beach (immortalized in Saving Private Ryan), the often forgotten 50% casualties (933) of the Canadian first wave at Juno Beach, and the heavy price paid by the Airborne units, shouldering 4000 of the estimated 9000 total casualties – 3000 of them fatalities – on D-Day. Casualties that dwarf the numbers of the last 12 years of fighting in the Afghanistan War were taken in mere moments. It is incomprehensible to us, and that, thankfully, is the lasting legacy, the gift to us, of these intrepid men.
In France today, areas still bear the code names of the Allied invasion, so long ago. Streets are named for the men who fought, and died there. It is our duty to remember them. Our duty to remember why they fought, to never forget that our free world was paid for in their blood, and to realize how close totalitarianism came to conquering this earth. Take the time today to reflect on this, and say thank you. Pause a moment, and think of these 300,000 souls, most well under 25, carrying the weight of our world on their young shoulders. Think about the thousands families who would receive notice of their loved one paying the ultimate sacrifice.
That’s all they would ask: ‘Remember us. Remember why we died. ‘
Lest we forget.
~ Kevin ”
View the Invasion of Normandy as depicted in the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan below. Read MilSuccessNet’s first blog in 2012 and posted on D-Day and it’s presence in film and books. Read a review of a daughter’s account of the D-Day legacy of “Dutch Schultz” also posted in the inaugural week of MilitarySuccessNetwork to honor historic dates in military, and world history.
The photo depicted on the HOME page is from army.mil and is of: Supreme Allied Commander U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with 101st Airborne Division paratroopers before they board airplanes and gliders to take part in a parachute assault into Normandy as part of the Allied Invasion of Europe, D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Speak Your Mind