COMBINED D-DAY FLAG DAY CEREMONY
Delran
1:00 p.m. June 11th 1994
by James R Bird

GOOD AFTERNOON:

It is my privilege to represent the Burlington County Boy Scouts on this occasion, because our organization has helped thousands of boys mature as patriotic and fruitful Americans, probably a few served at  Normandy.

 The fiftieth anniversary of  the Invasion of Normandy ,
termed the Mighty Endeavor by President Roosevelt, and
Crusade in Europe by General Eisenhower,
 was a day of commemoration - not a  celebration as a few implied.
I liken this service to the echoing of TAPS from Monday’s salute
to the fallen
at the American Cemetery in Colleville, France,
When President Clinton eloquently saluted veterans of Normandy
On behalf of all Americans.

How could we celebrate the deaths of thousands of Americans
who died there??  Or in any battle??
Whenever I hear the strains of TAPS,
the British army’s THE LAST POST
or the German’s I HAVE A COMRADE,
I cry for my friends and buddies who have gone on. ***

Although the invasion of Normandy was a major victory,
termed the beginning of the end,
it was but a link in the chain of many battles against the Nazis.
It may be looked upon as a 7th-inning batting rally --
there were many battles before it
and many more hard won battles afterwards.

Michelangelo’s statue, The Victor looks into the future with sadness,
because:
No one enjoys a victory - it’s over as soon as it’s won.
The beachhead was won at tremendous cost-
then row after row of impervious hedgerows
had to be captured, again at tremendous cost.

Nor is a  war over when the shooting stops -
it lasts in the memory of those who lost comrades,
friends or relatives,
especially  by mothers (then known as Gold Star Mothers)
and wives,
in the pain of the disabled and the bereaved.

Each battle of each war creates a new “Band of brothers”
for as William Shakespeare wrote:
“For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.”

 Almost a year before, I was numbed when Jerry Boyles and Leo Bell
 were the the first of many buddies to die
when we invaded Sicily on July 10th 1943.

 Then, like Jerry Boyles and Leo Bell,
thousands of  allied soldiers, sailors and airmen
died on D-Day June 6 1944
and thousands more were wounded.

Two of my boyhood friends
were among those who died on that beach.
They were old enough to be drafted,
old enough to die for this country,
but neither was old enough to vote.

It would be twenty-nine years before 18 year olds could vote,
and many Americans take this right for granted
because it has never yet been in jeopardy.

 Patriotism is more than being stirred by adrenalin upon hearing
John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes For Ever,
Semper Fidelis and watching the American flag whipping in the breeze -
it is primarily being a good citizen.
Jerry Boyles, Leo Bell, and my friends
along with many others died in faraway and lonely places around the world .
They who died, and they who survived fought
to protect this republic and our right to vote.
After the Wall came down in Europe and the Cold War ended,
Baltic nations held parliamentary elections, and ninety percent
of eligible voters went to the polls,
while only fifty percent of eligible Americans voted
in the  1988 presidential election.
Recently
millions of South Africans lined up to vote after
350 years of waiting.
My comrades and friends paid with their lives,
and I still pay with constant pain for the right to vote.
You can best honor Jerry, Leo, Bill, Grant
and all the rest by insuring your vote -
If you don’t use it you could lose it.

Long ago, William Tecumseh Sherman,
a Union Civil War general  said,
“I am tired and sick of war.
 Its glory is all moonshine.
It is only those who have neither fired a shot
nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded
 who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance more destruction.
War is Hell!”

When you have been in an army hospital as I have,
and smelled the odor of a badly burned tank crewman
or the odor of gangrene from a GI with trenchfoot
you will not soon forget their misery -
nor would you be anxious to ever again commit our troops,
unless in the defense of this country.

Notwithstanding that war is hell,
war is not all bad -
many of us who spent long months, even years overseas
had a learning experience,
beneficial and helpful towards making this world a better place.
I know of at least four combat soldiers,
three living in this area
who became successful ministers or priests,
two of them served with me at Anzio.
Many more, like myself became volunteers to serve
 our communities in the Boy and Girl Scouts,
fire companies, PTA and church activities.
We raised families and turned this country
into a strong nation - the only super power
still in existence; let us not abuse that power.

 Heroes one - heroes all - often unsung,  except to God.
In Normandy, the infantry
(sometimes referred to as the queen of war)
took the brunt of war, but at places like Anzio,
on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - everyone was vulnerable.
Many of my generation knew of Audie Murphy, a kid from Texas
 who became the most decorated soldier in WW II for exceptional bravery.
 But,
 those young men who served at Dunkirk,
in the air battle of Britain,
(one of my school mates disappeared in that battle)
in the lonely reaches of the North Atlantic,
at Corregidor,  Guadalcanal,   Iwo Jima,  Kasserine Pass,
 Sicily,  Anzio,  Cassino,   Normandy,  St Lo,  Rambervillers,
Battle of the Bulge,
Achaffenburg (where we fought children and old men)
in the air,  on and under the sea,
were  heroes all,
because they did the work required of them.

Till we meet again on that far shore:
We Shall Remember Them.
"They shall not grow old,
as we that are left grow old,
 age shall not weary them,
nor the years condemn.
 At the going down of the sun
and in the morning we will remember them."
Laurence Binyon

  On Tuesday the COURIER-POST displayed a headline
“We must never forget!”
Remembering is not enough -
so taking a phrase from
The BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
“LET US LIVE TO MAKE MEN FREE.”