D-Day and 100 years after Belleau Wood

Remember that day? 

D-Day, Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944.

Baby boomers and those older still have strong connections to that historic date. Sixteen million of the Greatest Generation — parents of baby boomers, siblings of the silent generation — served in World War II. 

Of those, 73,000 American troops participated directly in D-Day. The casualties to American soldiers on that day totaled 22,119 — with 2,811 killed, 5,665 missing, 79 prisoners and 13,564 wounded. Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs says 558,000 World War II veterans are still alive.

D-Day is one of those days we hope our descendants never forget. It was one of the greatest risks and successes in that horrible war — and a turning point.

This day marks another historic turning point as well: June 6, 1918, the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I. It forever defined the U.S. Marines and their ethos of determination against all odds.

All odds were against them on that day. The Germans were advancing in France, readying for a major breakthrough. 

But on June 6, the Marines’ 4th Brigade attacked the Germans, crossing the wheatfields into a patch of woods a mile and a half long and half-mile wide. The Battle of Belleau Wood ranks as one of the fiercest and deadliest battles in Marine history: Of the 9,000 Marines involved, 1,062 were killed, more than 3,000 wounded. 

Like D-Day, it turned the tide, deflating the Germans. 

June 6 — never forget.