On the evening of June 6, 1944, as news of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe was sweeping around the world, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the American people on the radio. His powerful message was that the military action known as D-Day was not an invasion of conquest but “a mighty endeavor to set free a suffering humanity.”
Seventy years later, we honor the brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen who carried out that mighty endeavor. Those who fell, those who survived but have since passed on, and those living today will be forever remembered by liberty-loving people everywhere. Nothing better describes the American character than this simple fact: the only ground claimed by the victors is the American Military Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, the final resting place of the 9,386 Americans who perished that day and during the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
That cemetery overlooks the site of the greatest amphibious troop landing in history, Omaha Beach. Omaha is not remembered, however, for the logistics of an unprecedented operation, but for the courage displayed there. So it is also at Utah Beach, the site of the other American landing; at Pointe-du-Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled towering cliffs into the face of withering enemy fire; at Ste.-Mere-Eglise, scene of the legendary paratrooper assault by the 82nd and 101st Airborne; and at Verville, a pleasant coastal town turned into a murderous minefield by the retreating enemy.
D-Day reminds us of places, but even more of names. Some are famous: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the chief architect of Operation Overlord and the leader who carried the heavy burden of its success or failure; Gen. Matthew Ridgway, who jumped into the darkness with his airborne troops in the early hours of the invasion. Most are not famous, but nonetheless deserving of unending respect: Nick Sangillo of Portland, who earned four Purple Hearts at Normandy; Fern Gaudreau of Westbrook, who served with the 82nd Airborne and fought at Omaha Beach, eventually earning a Purple Heart in Germany; Charles Norman Shay, a member of the Penobscot Nation and an Army medic who came ashore at Omaha; and so many more.
One of the most rewarding experiences I have as a United States Senator is to help our veterans obtain the medals they earned but never received. This year, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, I had the honor to join friends and family in presenting the Bronze Star and many other medals to Louis Roberge of Lewiston, a remarkable World War II veteran.
While allied forces were carrying out the Normandy invasion that began the liberation of Europe, on the other side of the world, Louis Roberge and the 96th Infantry Division – the fabled “Deadeye Division” – were preparing for the liberation of the Philippines and led the way at Leyte, the first step in that arduous campaign. General Douglas MacArthur’s famous pledge,” I shall return,” was kept.
Six months later came Operation Iceberg, the Battle of Okinawa, and the greatest amphibious assault of the War in the Pacific. From early April through mid-June of 1945, this battle raged for 82 days and claimed the largest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater. Against this ferocious “typhoon of steel,” Louis Roberge and his American comrades stood strong and emerged victorious.
Then, when the war at last came to an end, he did what truly distinguishes the men and women of America’s armed forces. He came home, gratefully and modestly. He married his sweetheart, Juliette, raised a fine family, and worked hard. The life he has enjoyed in peace is the way of life he fought so valiantly to defend in war.
D-Day was a turning point in World War II, but one that came amid other turning points. Just two days before, American troops liberated Rome. In the Pacific, Merrill’s Marauders had recently begun their heroic campaign behind enemy lines in Burma; the Allies had retaken key islands in New Guinea and the Marianas, and the Marines were just weeks away from launching their crucial invasions of Guam and Tinian.
The tide was turning, but many more months of brutal combat, sacrifice, and uncertainty lay ahead. But on the battlefields of Europe and in the Pacific, and here on the home front, American resolve never wavered. America matured as a nation during World War II. At enormous cost, we learned that, while we must always strive for peace, we must also be always ready to confront aggression. We taught the world that, when the guns of war fall silent, the victor does not have the right to further punish the vanquished, but an obligation to rebuild devastated cities and to restore the highest values of the human spirit.
These solemn anniversaries always raise the question of how we can best pay our respects to those who gave so much. The answer is for us to show them by our actions today that we understand what they stood for in their actions so many decades ago. Our obligation is not merely to remember what they did, but to uphold the commitment to freedom that gave them the strength to do it.
