Heavily armed U.S. paratroopers sit inside a military plane as they soar over the English Channel en route to the Normandy French coast for the Allied D-Day invasion. AP FILE PHOTO
When I was growing up in Andover, we had a nice neighbor known as Mr. Burke. He let us go through his backyard when we were setting up a basketball hoop.
What I did not know about Mr. Burke until years later, long after we had moved away, was that he was a hero in the D-Day invasion of World War II. On June 6, 1944, United States and Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of France to liberate Europe from Nazi German occupation. Milton Burke was one of the first U.S. soldiers on D-Day to reach Omaha Beach, a crucial landing zone for Allied forces.
Milton Burke’s 2014 obituary reads, “He had the military distinction of being among those in the first hour, first wave invasion at Omaha Beach on D Day, June 6, 1944 and was the recipient of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.”
With German forces firing on the Allied troops arriving on the beaches below, D-Day was the most dangerous mission. Many U.S. and Allied soldiers lost their lives in the initial attack to seize control of the beaches and climb the cliffs to knock out German guns.
My father, Vincent, could see how much loss there was when his 786th Army engineers unit arrived on Omaha Beach. The 786th engineers job was to clear mines so gasoline storage depots could be set up to fuel tanks and vehicles.
In his personal memoir, my father wrote, “Before we started to work we went down to the water’s edge, carefully sticking to the cleared path, and saw a sea of packs lying on the beach, each belonging to a dead or wounded soldier. ... How many packs were lying on the beach? I would say hundreds. Walking among those packs gives an eerie feeling and you cannot help but wonder what happened there on June 6, and how our soldiers overcame the enemy strongholds and moved inland.”
My father was injured on Omaha Beach when a mine went off nearby and shrapnel struck his leg. He was hospitalized and received a Purple Heart.
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Think of all the families that suffered loss or injury and the sacrifice they made for the D-Day invasion to succeed. It was the heroics of all the U.S. and Allied soldiers that changed the world.
As President Ronald Reagan said to veterans at the 40th D-Day anniversary in 1984, “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.”
Now, 80 years later, we must keep that faith and spirit alive. We have challenges to face today, but D-Day reminds us that if we are united we can overcome anything. It was Americans united with allies that defeated the Nazi German forces and won the war.
D-Day’s ultimate goal was to create a world of peace where people could live free from aggression, terror and dictators. As the Supreme Allied Commander on D-Day, General Dwight Eisenhower believed we must never give up on that goal. We must show the same courage for peace that soldiers did on D-day.
Eisenhower said, “The courage, devotion and faith which brought us through the perils of war will inevitably bring us success in our unremitting search for peace, security and freedom.”
As we remember D-Day, let’s bravely move forward to build that world of peace that so many have sacrificed to obtain.
William Lambers is the author of “The Road to Peace” and partnered with the U.N.World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the Washington Post, Newsweek, Cleveland Plain Dealer, History News Network and many other news outlets.
