 Re: OT: june 6, 1944: D-Day
D-Day anniversary marked by Gates
Officials dedicate visitors center in Normandy
June 7, 2007
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France - Above a cliff of silent reminders, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates yesterday evoked the image of fallen warriors to mark
the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy that turned the tide
of World War II.
The bloody beach assault June 6, 1944, "unfolded as if it were a lifetime"
for the young men who braved German guns, Gates said, looking out on a vast
field of white grave markers on a rainy, chilly day.
Gates attended the anniversary ceremony and dedication yesterday of a
visitors center at the Normandy American Cemetery, the burial ground for
9,387 war dead, most of whom lost their lives in the amphibious assault and
subsequent operations.
The money for the $30 million center was authorized by the U.S. Congress in
2001.
In remarks at the midday ceremony, Gates said U.S. and other Allied troops
landed at Normandy to destroy entrenched forces of oppression "so that this
nation, this continent and this world could one day know the tidings of
peace."
He tied the memory of Normandy to the challenge of today's war on terrorism.
"We once again face enemies seeking to destroy our way of life, and we are
once again engaged in an ideological struggle that may not find resolution
for many years or even decades," he said.
Speaking before Gates was Walter Ehlers, a Medal of Honor recipient who
landed at Omaha Beach as a young Army staff sergeant - an experience he
recalled in vivid detail. "We weren't prepared for the chaos and all the
disasters," he said.
Gates was accompanied by the new French defense minister, Herve Morin. Gates
used their moment together to highlight the traditional bonds between France
and the United States - ties that have been badly strained recently by the
war in Iraq and other differences.
"Minister Morin, events like this also remind us of all we have endured
together - remind us of our long history in times of war and in times of
peace, remind us of the shared values that transcend what differences we may
have had in the past, or may have in the present," Gates said.
In his own remarks, Morin said D-Day has lasting importance for his country.
"For the French, it was the beginning of the advance of freedom," he said.
When he arrived in Paris on Tuesday evening, Gates became the first U.S.
defense secretary to visit the French capital in nearly 10 years.
In his Normandy speech, Gates painted a painful sketch of the D-Day misery
and death, noting that it was preceded June 5 by the movement of an enormous
mass of men and ships that sailed across the English Channel.
"Men who had just a few months earlier been boys in the midst of adolescence
suddenly found themselves traversing a warren of lethal obstacles on beaches
named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword," Gates said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------
Another World War II ceremony also took place this week. On Monday at Midway
Atoll in the Pacific, about 1,800 people observed the 65th anniversary of
the start of the Battle of Midway against Japan.
William Tunstall, 87, an aviation machinist's mate second class on the
aircraft carrier Hornet on June 4, 1942, said he felt lonesome as he
remembered those who died. "I lost a lot of good friends," said Tunstall, of
Portland, Ore.
The United States saw 307 men killed, one aircraft carrier sunk and 145
planes destroyed. Japan lost 4,800 men and 291 planes. All four of the
aircraft carriers Tokyo sent to Midway were sunk, along with a heavy cruiser
and three destroyers.
 | 
Linear Mode
