Remembering Ike & D-Day

"What would General Eisenhower have to say about the plight of our veterans on the street today?" asked Sanders.

Dwight Eisenhower may have been the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces that parachuted behind enemy lines and landed on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, but Sanders noted the general with four stars on his collar appreciated that the GI's with "stripes on their sleeves were the real heroes." Eisenhower made a point of visiting with as many of the privates, corporals and sergeants as he could in the build-up to the "Longest Day."

Eisenhower was awarded his fifth star December 20, 1944, becoming a General of the Army. In 1953, he succeed Harry S. Truman as President of the United States.

When the beloved leader affectionately known as "Ike" died in 1969, Eisenhower was, by his own request, buried in an $80 government-issued casket — a casket no different than what the Army would have furnished any other soldier.

"President Eisenhower was true to his Abilene, Kansas roots and humble 'til the end," Sanders pointed out. 

The Salute To Veterans' special guest speaker understood how much Eisenhower had come to, in his own words, "hate war." In addition to President and General, she called Ike "granddad."

Mary Eisenhower has dedicated her life to promoting peace. She serves as the Chairman Emeritus of People to People International, a not-for-profit organization that President Eisenhower originally formed in 1956. Today, People to People is based in Kansas City and continues the mission President Eisenhower established for it: "To promote international understanding and friendship through educational, cultural and humanitarian activities."

"There is no more unconditional gift you can offer a nation and her people than to serve," said Mary Eisenhower, an Independence resident. "The words 'thank you' are just not enough."

She added that she was in France for the 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day invasion her grandfather led. Little boys were playing in old bomb craters now covered with grass.

The scars on the battlefield may be less stark after 70 years, but the appreciation for the "unbelievable courage" of the soldiers who breached Adolf Hitler's notorious Atlantic Wall on D-Day should never fade, Sanders said. President Franklin Roosevelt, on that historic day, referred to America's troops as "our sons, pride of our nation."

Sanders cited the remarkable bravery of the Army Rangers tasked on D-Day with scaling the cliff at Pointe du Hoc. Their mission included climbing up ropes the Germans might cut at any moment, then, if they reached the top — 100 feet up — taking out the enemy's heavy artillery shelling both Omaha and Utah Beaches. All while under a hail of relentless gunfire.

Of the 225 Rangers who attempted the climb, 90 were killed or severely wounded.

"As one ranger fell, another took his place," Sanders said. "Think about the sacrifices, the courage of those men."

Fewer than one in 15 of the United States servicemen and women from World War II are still alive. Those surviving sons Roosevelt asked Americans to pray for June 6, 1944, are now grandfathers, great-grandfathers and even great-great-grandfathers.

"If you look at interviews of those Rangers who climbed those cliffs, they are asked, 'Why did you do it?'" Sanders stated. "They'll say because they knew they were part of something that was bigger than themselves. That's what drove them on."