I’m thinking about June 6….as I have every thinking year of my life, so far. The Normandy Invasion of Allied forces June 6, 1944 would presage the end of the European Axis of World War II.
My father was one of those soldiers, who surviving Utah Beach, would have to battle across the “Bulge” into the “Rhineland”, where months later as “occupier” he searched for his brother Fred in a German P.O.W. camp Stalag 17.
That’s the extent of my real knowledge of the price paid by soldiers of that war. Daddy didn’t talk about it, but he made sure I learned and acknowledged the history and the sacrifice. To me that’s what the National Anthem and flag represent…a history of sacrifice. My dad never vocally judged anyone else’s respect or lack thereof… but his coffin and my uncle Fred’s were draped with the Stars and Stripes upon their deaths, after a life that was hard fought.