June 6, 2005 [LINK]
Sixty one years ago today, nearly 150,000 American, British, Canadian, and other Allied soldiers waded ashore (or swooped in by air) to begin the liberation of France, and eventually, Western Europe. Thanks to the movie Saving Private Ryan, the World War II Memorial in Washington, and the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, that momentous event is no longer as remote from our consciousness as it used to be. Many Americans are still rather weak when it comes to understanding that cataclysmic conflict, or in drawing lessons from it that might be applicable to our world today, but there is at least hope that the lamentable gap in historic knowledge will be narrowed.
UPDATE: The Daisy Cutter blog relates the memories of one of the elite Rangers who stormed the cliffs at Point du Hoc on D-Day to take out the German heavy gun emplacements. It includes a photo of what the place looks like today. (via InstaPundit)