They Saved the World

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It was just happenstance that the day I pulled the Ryder van from San Francisco up to my new apartment in Colorado Springs was the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Unloaded the van — which didn’t take long because I didn’t own much — got the TV plugged in and tuned into CNN, drank half a beer, and then passed out during the middle of a Normandy remembrance. It doesn’t take much physical effort or much alcohol to get you to fall asleep on your first day of life at 6,200 feet above sea level.

Woke up and thought about the boys of Pointe du Hoc and their physical activities 50 years ago that day. Their moral activities, too — they saved the world. Not bad for a few young men who just a couple years prior had been farmers, laborers, teachers, businessmen, and going up against the battle hardened Nazi war machine.

My 20 years between June Sixes here in Colorado feel like a rich lifetime — what must the 70 years feel like for those few remaining men from the beaches of Normandy?

And if you’d like to play a little What If? with us, on this week’s Wildcard Trifecta, we got hit with a surprise question about D-Day, and what would have happened if the Nazis had turned Eisenhower’s forces back from the beaches. It’s a grim exercise, but a fine reminder.

But whatever you do today, raise a glass — and remember.