Today is a very significant day. It was 75 years ago this morning, June 6, 1944, that the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy, France to break the grip Nazi Germany had on Europe.

The overall strategy was called Operation Overlord by the military leaders that planned this attack. The day was called D-Day. There had never been anything quite like it. It was a massive and daring and incredibly risky military battle. It was so risky, in the minds of the highest commanders who ordered it to move forward, it could have failed. The plan called for 150,000 troops to storm a beach that was overshadowed by tall cliffs and was heavily fortified with killing machines. The waters were mined and the beaches were filled with concrete bunkers armed with machine guns designed to take down anything that moved the length of the waterway. The troops were either parachuted in behind the lines the night before or sent by boat across the English Channel. Their enemies knew they were coming and they were ready for them. And the Allies knew that fact going into the battle. They knew there would be many soldiers killed trying to take that beach. The leaders knew it and the brave men who were about to storm the beach knew it, but they went ahead with the plan. So why risk it? Because some things in life are worth the risk. One of those things is freedom. D-Day reminds me of that.

This morning, world leaders are gathered at a cemetery on the top of those cliffs. There were 2,500 men killed in the D-Day invasion. They were laid to rest there in France, not far from where they fell. They were joined this morning by a few old men, now in their 90s, who were once young men storming those beaches, climbing the cliffs and opening up freedom for the world. They are now few and frail, but don’t discount them and certainly don’t forget. Without their bravery and the risks they took, evil was defeated and people are free.

I will go about my business today. I have meetings to keep and people to talk to. I am sure you do as well. But for a moment, I would ask you to stop what you are doing and remember that everything you do today would be so much different if those men had not taken the risk to do something that seemed impossible to benefit us all.

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Photo of Gen Dwight Eisenhower giving the order of the day to the 101 Airborne Division, June 5, 1944, courtesy of the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress