Latest news with #AmericanSoldiers
Forbes
26-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
Memorial Day: Much To Remember. So We Remember.
Rows of white crosses of fallen american soldiers at American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach Cimetiere ... More Americain, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France COLEVILLE-SUR-MER, NORMANDY, FRANCE – We walked through the imposing entrance, the middle of the semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end. There we stood, at the foot of a 22-foot bronze statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves by Donald De Luc. Over the arches of the Memorial is engraved "THIS EMBATTLED SHORE, PORTAL OF FREEDOM, IS FOREVER HALLOWED BY THE IDEALS, THE VALOR AND THE SACRIFICES OF OUR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN". At the feet of the Memorial is engraved both in English and French "IN PROUD REMEMBRANCE OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER SONS AND IN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THEIR SACRIFICES THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". Thus began our visit – my wife, my 12-year-old son, and me – on the 50th anniversary of D-Day to the most somber place I've ever seen on this earth: The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial (French: Cimetière américain de Colleville-sur-Mer). The cemetery spreads out over 172.5 acres (roughly a quarter of a square mile) of strikingly beautiful land on a bluff overlooking the English Channel. On the day of our visit 31 years ago, the grass and shrubs were soft and lush, the sky was a vivid, cloudless blue, and the waters of the Channel – choppy, cold, and blood-filled on that fateful day 1944 – were soft, rhythmic, and calming on our day in 1994. There was a soft, sweet breeze coming off the Channel that whispered through the maples, pines, oaks, and sycamores as it caressed our bodies and souls, transporting the aromas of the flowering roses and heather to and about us. We remember. To honor this sacred day and to remember those who made it so, it couldn't have been a more perfect setting. Perched atop the cliffs of Omaha Beach, the cemetery holds 9,388 graves of American military personnel, with their white marble headstones seternally at attention. We remember. The cemetery also contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of which are buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, 4 women, 147 African Americans and 20 Native Americans. Further, 304 unknown soldiers are buried among the other service members. Their headstones read "HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY A COMRADE IN ARMS KNOWN BUT TO GOD". We remember. We spent an entire afternoon walking the grounds in total silence, along with many hundreds of the one million annual visitors. Words were not just insufficient. They were impossible and unnecessary. A time capsule is buried at the cemetery, to be opened on June 6, 2044, so that our progeny will continue to remember. And so we remember. We remember the thousands buried at Normandy and at American cemeteries all over the world. We remember those at rest in Arlington, Virginia. We remember the many. We remember the individuals. We remember my mother's younger brother Lewis, whose posthumously awarded Purple Heart I've proudly and emotionally passed along to my son. We remember my high school friend John. We remember the 58,000 who died in Vietnam. We remember those who died in Korea, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. We remember. I wish you a deeply thoughtful Memorial Day.
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Dean Phillips: How to Regain Trust After the Biden Coverup
I appreciate your editorial 'A Reckoning for the Biden Coverup' (May 19), but I'm not the one who's owed an apology—every American voter is. Those who propagated the lie about the former president's fitness for office, and those who remained quiet in the face of it, placed their politics and proximity to power ahead of principle. The result was putting America at a crossroads. How can we be a nation of courage when cowards populate the most integral institution of democracy? This is personal for me. My father, Capt. Artie Pfefer, was one of 58,000 American soldiers killed in Vietnam, fighting a war in which he didn't believe but for a country he cherished. In March 2023 I traveled to Pleiku to visit the ground on which he and seven soldiers took their last breaths in 1969, five days after Americans walked on the moon. That paradox wasn't lost on me—within the course of a week our country was able to unify humanity, at its best, and destroy part of it, at its worst.
Russia Today
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Trump proclaims US WWII Victory Day
President Donald Trump has officially proclaimed May 8 as a national day to celebrate victory in World War II, emphasizing the United States' contribution as decisive – while completely ignoring the Soviet Union's role and sacrifice in defeating Nazi Germany. In his proclamation issued by the White House on Wednesday, Trump claimed that 'without the sacrifice of our American soldiers, this war would not have been won, and our world today would look drastically different.' 'On this Victory Day for World War II, we celebrate the unmatched might, strength, and power of the American Armed Forces, and we commit to protecting our sacred birthright of liberty against all threats, foreign and domestic,' the US president wrote, emphasizing that 'more than 250,000 Americans lost their lives' fighting for the 'survival of Western civilization.' Trump previously announced plans to designate November 11 as 'Victory Day for World War I,' a move that would effectively rename Veterans Day – a federal holiday honoring all US military veterans. The White House later clarified that such declarations would not create new public holidays without congressional approval. Trump's push to 'start celebrating our victories again' has drawn criticism from Russia and even some Allied nations, who accused him of distorting historical facts. General Lord Dannatt, former chief of the General Staff in the UK – which lost about 450,700 people in the war – called Trump's remarks 'extraordinary' and accused him of 'rewriting history.' Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of his country's Security Council, dismissed the remarks as 'pretentious nonsense.' 'Our people gave 27 million lives of their sons and daughters for the sake of destroying damned fascism,' he wrote. 'Victory Day is ours and it is on May 9. That's how it was, is, and always will be!' Russia is grateful to the US for its support during WWII, but the USSR would have defeated Nazi Germany even without the assistance – though 'it would have been very difficult,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week. The Soviet Union received aid valued at around $200 billion in today's terms through the Lend-Lease program – a US government initiative that provided allies with military supplies, equipment, food, and strategic raw materials. The assistance, however, was not free. Russia, as the USSR's successor state, completed its financial obligations related to the Lend-Lease program only in 2006. Nazi Germany officially surrendered to the Allied forces on May 8, 1945, following the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops. The capitulation took effect after midnight in Moscow. May 8 is observed as Victory in Europe Day, while Russia commemorates the occasion on May 9.
