Veteran's Day

[Guest guest]

Heard a clip of Reagan's speech at the 40th anniversary of D-day.

It was inspiring so I thought I'd forward it to you. If you know a Veteran,

be sure to tell them a simple " Thank you for your service to our country " .

( E. Abrahamson, D.C.)

Chiropractic physician

Lake Oswego Chiropractic Clinic

315 Second Street

Lake Oswego, OR 97034

503-635-6246

Website: http://www.lakeoswegochiro.com

To see other speeches, go here:

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/dday_pdh.asp

Full text:

Remarks at the U.S. Ranger Monument

Pointe du Hoc, France

June 6, 1984

One of two speeches commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day

Invasion, this speech was delivered at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument

at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy Invasion, and

others, had assembled for the ceremony. Later during the day, President

Reagan spoke at Omaha Beach, France.

1,988 words.

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in

battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of

Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried

out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved,

and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here

the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking

unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The

air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke

and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire

and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944,

225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of

these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the

invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy

guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were

here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers--the edge of the cliffs

shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the

American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of

these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another

would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and

begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing.

Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing

the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the

continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days

of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust

into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs.

These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes

who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Spender's poem.

You are men who in your " lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air

signed with your honor.''

I think I know what you may be thinking right now--thinking, " We were just

part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.'' Well, everyone was.

Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty

years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting

desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some

thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren't. They looked up and saw Bill

Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack

of the bullets into the ground around him.

Lord Lovat was with him--Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when

he got to the bridge, " Sorry I'm a few minutes late,'' as if he'd been

delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he'd just come from the bloody

fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken.

There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the

enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed

courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this

coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred.

And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a

pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland's

24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of

England's armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard's

" Matchbox Fleet'' and you, the American Rangers.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were

young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys,

with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, 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.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith

that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them

mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray

God we have not lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between

the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were

here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt

your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth

dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply

honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty.

All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your

countries were behind you.

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was

spreading through the darkness back home. They thought--or felt in their

hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling

the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and

praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief that

Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here;

that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the

invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with

him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can

see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do. Also that night,

General Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the

promise God made to : " I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped

the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be

returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there

was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the

Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those

who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.

There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all

of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating

the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The

Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance--a great alliance that serves to

this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end

of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The

great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of

Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of

this continent did not leave when peace came. They're still there,

uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of

this, Allied forces still stand on this continent. Today, as 40 years ago,

our armies are here for only one purpose--to protect and defend democracy.

The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards

where our heroes rest.

We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better

to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the

sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We've learned that

isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to

tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent.

But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression;

prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out

again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation

we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so,

together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It's fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian

people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that

testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my

heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the

face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I

tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from

the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our

desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest.

There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into

action.

We will pray forever that some day that changing will come. But for now,

particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each

other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.

We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties,

traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's

allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is

essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you

then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our

destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our

dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for.

Let our actions say to them the words for which Ridgway listened: " I

will not fail thee nor forsake thee.''

Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne

by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they

lived and died.

Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

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Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. at the site of the U.S. Ranger

Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy invasion

had assembled for the ceremony.

Following his remarks, the President unveiled memorial plaques to the 2nd

and 5th Ranger Battalions. Then, escorted by Phil Rivers, superintendent of

the Normandy American Cemetery, the President and Mrs. Reagan proceeded to

the interior of the observation bunker. On leaving the bunker, the President

and Mrs. Reagan greeted each of the veterans.

Other Allied countries represented at the ceremony by their heads of state

and government were: Queen II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix

of The Netherlands, King Olav V of Norway, King Baudouin I of Belgium, Grand

Duke of Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of

Canada.