(Low clouds above entrenched German resistance at Omaha Beach.)

There is a bunch of stuff to talk about this morning, but I don’t feel like delving too far into the present. It is messy, lacks any demonstration of courage, and the portents are uncertain. Only in that does this morning share much with the one on this day 68 years ago, though the stakes might be just as high, though perhaps not as immediate and violently fatal.

They say that the term “D-Day” has no particular meaning. It does not refer to “decision day” or anything of the like. It just meant “the day,” a notional concept of when one thing turned into another thing on a gigantic integrated schedule-of-events, the scope of which dwarved the mobilizations that shook Europe to its foundations in 1914.

Ike took a look at the weather days ago, and shrugged. His weather-guesser said that conditions might rise to marginally acceptable. There was a limited window on the calendar which involved tides and lunar phases to enable the airborne component of the operation.

The vast machine could not be held in neutral for long- the complexity of the enormous logistics train that snaked to the sea-borne ports of embarkation had been put underway. The secret of where they were going- not the shorter route to the Pas de Calais, but a longer one to the beaches- designated “Juno,” “Gold,” “Sword,” “Utah” and “Omaha”- could not be held for long.

Some troops were already at sea, and could not return to their bases since the flow from behind for future waves had already filled them up.

Ike said: “go,” and turned to Field Marshall Montgomery to execute Operation Overlord, and commence Operation Neptune. He wrote a memo for the record and stuck it in his pocket. Should it be necessary, he was prepared to read it and accept sole responsibility for failure.

It certainly could have. But it did not.

This is always a special day for me. Whenever I see a particularly thorny problem, I think back to what they did then. Their answers were about matters of life and death, and acceptance and sacrifice. They prevailed against overwhelming force and the legions of doom.

Remember. There were times when there were leaders of real and personal courage. We could use some of that these days.

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com