"Oh God of battles! Steel my soldiers' hearts." (Henry V)

.....Today marks the 65th Anniversary of D-Day when the greatest land and sea invasion in history was launched. Military historian Martin Morgan leads a tour to the Normandy battle site each year. "The death rate of vets is like the loss of 1100 national treasures each day," he says. And what is the price you can put on each of those "treasures"? And what will happen when the last of these treasures (of which I plan to be that one--at least in America) is gone? Will that conflict and its victorious soldiers, sailors, and airmen fade from the consciousness and memories of the I-Pod generation? Who can recall Verdun? (Look it up).

.....Now, in spite of Morgan's claim, I never considered myself a national treasure--but if anyone approves of that nomenclature and assessment of me, who am I to object? What kind of treasure are we talking about, anyway? No doubt, eyewitness accounts of that horrendous war. Books about WWII abound in number, as well as films and TV accounts--but they cannot achieve or re-create the emotional and historical views of someone who has been there and experienced those historical years up close. Without that, the only thing left are treasured stories, sadly, and eventually, to gather dust in libraries around the world. But of now, on Memorial Day, there still remain many who honor the memories of those who died in the Civil War, WWI, Vietnam, WWII, and Iraq. The testaments are the flags placed on the graves of the veterans of those wars.

.....It has always been true that the forces of Evil are subject to the power and will of a united and a free people. And I consider it a duty and an honor to re-create in my blog the words of an American patriot, Thomas Paine, whose love and thoughts of freedom thunder and echo down the centuries to inspire us even now:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."