Memorial Day 2024

This is my eighteenth consecutive Memorial Day message. You can find the previous seventeen at the end of this message.

Foremost, on this Memorial Day, as always, we remember and honor all those servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price in America's wars. And we remember and honor their families too.

In less than two weeks, on June 6, we will commemorate the 80^th anniversary of D-Day, the day when some 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on Omaha Beach and four others along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion, one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history, was the beginning of the end of World War II.

About 2500 Americans died in the invasion on June 6 alone.

So, on this Memorial Day, with the milestone D-Day anniversary fast approaching, below you will find some quotes – some from leaders of the invasion and some from ordinary soldiers – that I hope will encourage contemplation regarding Memorial Day and what it means for America.

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“If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.” — General Dwight Eisenhower.

“Two kinds of people are staying on this beach—the dead and those who are going to die.” — Colonel George A. Taylor, commanding the Sixteenth Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division, on Omaha Beach.

“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.” — President Ronald Reagan, on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day.

“I don't feel that I’m any kind of hero. To me, the work had to be done. I was asked to do it. So, I did. When I lecture kids, I tell them the same thing.” — Private First Class Joseph Lesniewski​, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” Elmer Davis.

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Every Memorial Day provides an opportunity for contemplative reflection regarding the sacrifice of those who gave, as Lincoln put it at Gettysburg, “the last full measure of devotion.” This is true also of commemorations of anniversaries like D-Day.

Finally, this from Ronald Reagan in his Farewell Address to the American people on January 12, 1989: "If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I am warning of an eradication of that – of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit."

For the sake of American memory, and the preservation of the spirit that has kept America a beacon of liberty and freedom, remember the sacrifice that our country's fallen paid with their lives.

My very best wishes to you and your family for a safe and meaningful Memorial Day.

PS – My past Memorial Day messages are here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.