Why Did They?

Seventy-one years ago today, men fought and died for a cause and I wanted to make a few comments about that important landing/invasion.

Think about it: thousands of young men got onto ships and went off to engage the enemy. They rode out the early morning hours on rough seas and then got into landing craft which handled the seas even more poorly. When the landing craft lowered the ramps, these young men faced machine gun fire and many never even lived another minute. The ones who did still faced enemy fire and many drowned in the rough surf trying to get to the beach.

Imagine: You have been awake for hours, you are seasick, you are a long way from home and have been for some time. You are about to face an enemy determined to kill as many of you as possible. They will do this with bullets, with mines, with shells from cannon. You will find little cover and some of you will have to climb up cliffs while the enemy tries to kill you with bullets and grenades. It will be Hell on Earth and you have no idea if you will be among the living at the end of the ordeal. But you have no choice. No one is offering you one; not your commanders, not your NCOs, and definitely not the enemy.

You really don't want to be there but you enlisted, or maybe you were drafted but didn't mind so much..., the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and your nation was at war. You thought it your duty to defend her, to fight, maybe even die. But this was not the way you had thought it would be nor was it  against the Japanese. This was against Germans, people who looked like you, and it was going to be a tough slog against a well equipped army full of seasoned veterans. You didn't volunteer for that, you volunteered for the uniform, for patriotic reasons, and you never realized how bad war could be.

But now you know, with guys you knew dying all around you, guys who never made it off the landing craft, guys who did but died soon after. And then there were the ones who got wounded, lost limbs, lost eyesight; bloody and whimpering and calling for their Mommas. You found out that morning why they say "War is Hell."


These young men eventually returned home, had families, and went on with their lives. They became our fathers, our grandfathers, our uncles. And we often do not appreciate the sacrifices they made that day and in the next 11 months to put an end to a truly evil regime.

 Remember them.