D-Day

"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.  Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.  But this is the year 1944! The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!  I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.  We will accept nothing less than full victory!  Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking." - Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander

On June 6, 1944, a date known ever since as D-Day (the opening day of the Battle of Normandy), a mighty armada crossed a narrow strip of sea from England to Normandy, France, and cracked the Nazi grip on western Europe.The brave men who crushed the Nazis are often called part of the 'Greatest Generation,' and the reasons are many.  The reason which comes first to my mind is they've rarely asked for anything in return for what they gave in WWII...The least we can do is remember and honor them and their service.

"You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love."

"The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge - and pray God we have not lost it - that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt."

"You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you." - Ronald Reagan

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm
http://www.britannica.com/dday