As we observe Memorial Day, we honor those who died while serving in one of the branches of our nation’s military. More than a million have now given the ultimate sacrifice for our country in the conflicts that have occurred since the Revolutionary War.
Also, in a few days June 6th of this year will mark the 80th anniversary of the famous D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy in World War II. This incredible military operation involved many thousands of Allied personnel, all doing their part. Recently, I read a reprint of a 1994 Peanuts newspaper strip in which Charles Schultz commemorated the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Appearing in the June 6th edition of newspapers across America in 1994, Schultz used Snoopy, who adopted his persona of a “World Famous G.I.” charging through the surf at Omaha Beach, in order to pay tribute for this special observance. The Peanuts newspaper strips for the next four days continued the tribute, concluding with the “World Famous G.I.” writing a letter to his Mom in which he expressed his hopes for a quick end to the war following the successful invasion.
I have long known of the critical role played by the “Higgins boats” in the landing of some 100,000 soldiers on D-Day. However, I only recently became aware of the Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial in Nebraska. Praised by General Eisenhower as “the man who won the war for us,” Higgins was the man who designed and built the LCVPs – long, flat boats with doors on the front that fold down – that made it possible to land soldiers on an open beach. This memorial includes a full-size steel replica of a LCVP boat and a Memorial Walk featuring brass stars holding sand samples from the D-Day beaches on which these boats landed in 1944. As we mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6th, we again remember the contributions of unlikely war heroes such as Higgins, a boat-builder from Nebraska!
Charles Schultz, himself a veteran of World War II, is no longer around to mark this 80th anniversary with us. For those of us whose parent(s) served in the war, it seems impossible that battle is already 80 years old. Time marches on, but we gratefully pause to remember those who served and those who gave their all for the rest of us.
MATTHEW McKENZIE 