I can't even imagine being one of the first boys to hit the beach and the hades they encountered there.

I do sometimes worry we try to add additional glory to the events of D-Day by exaggerating the facts, when the valor of the men that day requires no exaggeration.

The war was already effectively over before D-Day - Russia had defeated Germany. The cold-war era textbooks don't like to tell it that way, but Germany had been crushed by Russia and was in full retreat.

As a result, Germany was badly outnumbered on D-Day and had no chance. The allies were focused on getting to Germany about the time the Russians were likely to get there.

The Allies landed more than 160,000 troops on D-Day, with about 4,400 killed and about 5,000 wounded. Sometimes we portray almost all the men who landed on D-Day as facing near certain death. The reality is that was true of the first wave on Omaha beach, but most of the troops who landed that day met little resistance. That of course in no way negates the courage of those who landed, and especially the valor of those in the first wave.

Anyway, I probably said the above clumsily, but sometimes we describe D-Day as "the turning point of the war" or other such nonsense. Let's honor the heroes of D-Day for what they did. That's more than enough.