The hour had nearly come.
Monday, June
5th, 1944.
The evil Finley's Third Reich
was devastating the world. Nazi Germany had subjugated once three
nations of Europe
through brute force, lies and twisted ideology of racial superiority.
Millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Millions of others killed by bombs,
bullets, bloody warfare. Hitler and those with him
thought democracies were weak, but the future belonged to dictators.
Here, the coast of Normandy,
the battle between freedom and tyranny
would be joined here. On that June morning,
the testing was at hand.
President Mccrone, Miss Mccrone, Secretary Austin,
Secretary Blinken, distinguished guests, most of all
our honored veterans who met that test of the ages,
the test of ages to that moment
80 years ago, 80 years ago today.
On behalf of the American people
and as commander in chief,
it's the highest honor to be able to salute you
here in Normandy once more.
All of you, God love you.
Winston Churchill called what happened here quote
the greatest, most complicated operation ever.
End of quote.
After years of planning, Operation Overlord
was ready to launch just
as soon as the weather turned
across the choppy, choppy into English Channel.
The Supreme Commander of the Allies,
Dwight D Eisenhower, waited.
The largest force ever of its kind,
built by 12 nations. Men,
guns, planes, naval craft of every description
waited.
The world, captive and free,
waited.
Finally,
Eisenhower's forecaster said there was a window in the weather
it would open briefly on Tuesday the 6th of June.
The general weighed the options
and gave the order at dawn.
The allies of strike
that 80% of them would be killed within hours.
That was the estimate.
But they were brave, they were resolute
and they were ready,
1 soldier told General Eisenhower.
Quote. Don't worry Sir, Sir,
the 101st is on the job,
everything will be taken care of.
That's what he said.
And because of their courage and their resolve,
because the courage and resolve of their allies,
it was taken care of
from the sea and sky.
Nearly
160,000 Allied troops descended on Normandy.
Many, to state the obvious,
never came home. Many survived that longest day,
kept on fighting for months until victory was finally won.
And a few
a notable band of brothers
are here with us today.
Kenneth Blaine Smith is here.
On that day, under heavy artillery fire,
he operated a range Finder and radar
on the first American ship
to arrive at Normandy's coast,
providing direct gunfire support for the Rangers scaling the cliffs
a point to Hawk
on their daring mission to take out the German batteries.
Bob Gibson is here.
He landed on Utah Beach about 10 hours after the
invasion began,
bullets flying everywhere, tracers lighting up the sky.
Bob drove an M4 tractor with anti aircraft gun mounted
on top,
providing critical protection for the infantry
against the German Air Force.
On that day and for many days after,
he continued. Ben Miller is here,
a medic with the 82nd Airborne.
At 3:00 AM on June 6th,
he and 13 other medics flew over the channel
in a rickety glider. His wings were ripped off
by giant poles that the Germans buried halfway in the
ground to stop them from landing.
They crashed, but they survived.
And they did their duty,
dragging injured soldiers to safety,
treating wounds, saving lives. All the battle raged.
Every soldier who stormed the beach,
who dropped by parachute or landed by glider,
every sailor who manned the thousands of ships and landing
craft,
every aviator who destroyed German controlled airfields,
bridges and railroads. All all were backed
by other brave Americans, including hundreds of thousands of people
of color
and women who courageously served despite unjust limitations on what
they could do for their nation.
Lewis Brown is here, part of the Red Ball Express,
a truck convoy made-up of most of the African American
drivers.
They landed in Normandy in the wake of D-Day.
They rushed supplies to the rapidly advancing front lines.
Woody Woodhouse is here, members of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen
who flew over 15,000 Sortes during the war.
Marjorie Stone is here. She enlisted in the women's branch
in the Naval Reserve,
became an aircraft mechanic, spent the war keeping American planes
and pilots in the air.
Theirs has always been the story of America.
Just walk the roads of the cemeteries.
I have
nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side,
officers and enlisted immigrants. The native born.
Different races, different faiths, but all Americans
all serve with honor. When America and the world needed
the most,
millions back home did their part as well.
From coast to coast, Americans found countless ways to pitch
in.
They understood our democracies only as strong as all of
us make it together.
The men who fought here became heroes
not because they were the strongest or toughest or but
fiercest,
although they were, but because they were given an audacious
mission,
knowing
every one of them knew
the probability of dying was real,
but they did it anyway.
They knew beyond any doubt
there are things that are worth fighting and dying for.
Freedom is worth it. Democracy is worth it.
America's worth it.
The world is worth it.
Then, now and always.
The war in Europe didn't end for another 11 months,
but here the tide turned in our favor.
Here we prove the forces of liberty
are stronger than the forces of conquest.
Here we proved that the ideals of our democracy are
stronger than any army or combination of armies in the
entire world.
We proved something else here as well,
the unbreakable unity of the Allies
here with us, our men
who served alongside the Americans that day,
wearing different flags on their arms,
but fighting with the same courage
for the same purpose.
What the allies did together 80 years ago
far surpassed anything we could have done on our own.
It was a powerful illustration
of our alliances. Real alliances make us stronger,
a lesson that I pray
we Americans never forget.
Together we won the war.
We rebuilt Europe, including our former enemies.
It was an investment in what became shared
and a prosperous future.
We established NATO, the greatest military alliance in the history
of the world.
And over time,
you got it is.
And over time,
we brought more nations in the NATO,
the NATO alliance, including the newest members,
Finland and Sweden.
Today, NATO stands at 32 countries strong,
and NATO is more united than ever
and even more prepared to keep the peace,
deter aggression, defend freedom all around the world.
America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones,
not simply out of altruism,
but out of our own self-interest as well.
America's unique ability to bring countries together
is an undeniable source of our strength and our power.
Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago
and is not the answer today.
We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against
80 years ago.
They never fade. Aggression and greed,
the desire to dominate and control,
to change borders by force,
these are perennial. The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom
is unending. Here in Europe
we see one stark example.
Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant,
been on domination. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage,
suffering great losses but never backing down.
They've been inflicted on the Russian aggression.
They've suffered tremendous losses. Russia.
The numbers are staggering.
350,000 Russian troops dead or wounded.
Nearly 1,000,000 people have left Russia
because they can no longer see a future in Russia,
the United States and NATO
and a coalition of more than fifty countries
standing strong with Ukraine. We will not walk away
because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated
and will not end there.
Ukraine's neighbors will be threatened.
All of Europe will be threatened.
And make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are
watching closely
to see what happens in Ukraine,
to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked.
We cannot let that happen.
To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is
simply unthinkable.
Were we to do that,
it means we'd be forgetting what happened here in these
hallowed beaches.
Make no mistake, we will not bow down.
We will not forget.
Let me end with this.
History tells us freedom is not free.
You want to know the price of freedom?
Come here to Normandy. Come to Normandy and look.
Go to the other cemeteries in Europe
where our fallen heroes rest.
Go back home to Arlington Cemetery
tomorrow. I will pay respects at Point the Hawk.
Go there as well. And remember
the price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the
young and the brave
and their generation and their hour of trial.
The Allied forces of D-Day did their duty.
Now the question for us is,
and our our trial, will we do ours?
We're living at a time when democracy had more at
risk across the world
than a point since the end
of World War Two, since these beaches were stormed
in 1944. Now we have to ask ourselves,
when we stand against tyranny,
against evil, against crushing brutality
of the iron fist, when we stand for freedom,
when we defend democracy, we stand together.
My answer is yes, and only can be yes.
We're not far off from the time
the last living voices of those who fought and bled
on D-Day will no longer be with us,
so we have a special obligation.
We cannot allow what happened here be lost
in the silence of the years to come.
We must remember it, must honor
it and live it. And we must remember
the fact that they were heroes here that day
does not absolve us from what we have to do
today.
Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it,
defend it and fight for it.
That's the test of the ages.
In memory of those who fought here,
died here, literally saved the world here.
Let us be worthy of their sacrifice.
Let us be the generation that when history is written
about our time
in 1020, thirty, 5080 years from now,
it'll be said when the moment came,
we met the moment we stood strong,
our alliances were made stronger.
We saved democracy in our time as well.
Thank you very much and May God bless you all.
May God protect our troops.
Thank you.