JUNE 6, 1944.

JUNE 6, 1944. Three years ago there were a number of newspaper stories with interviews of D-Day veterans. One man spoke of seeing the Rangers in training in the United Kingdom. He was struck by their size and athleticism and said that he didn’t know what their assignment was going to be when the anticipated invasion took place, but that it had to be something special. On D-Day, their assignment was to scale the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. (Note the picture in this Wikipedia article showing the cliffs going straight up). I was moved by an interview with a Ranger which showed the difficulty of the climb and the extraordinary abilities of these men. He said that he had almost reached the top and realized he couldn’t go any farther. He turned and asked the Ranger beside him, can you help me? I can’t make it. The man beside him replied that he couldn’t make it either. And then, the veteran said, a large hand reached down and pulled him up and then pulled up the man beside him.