Some days military logistics shouldn’t be the topic.

Today, this blog isn’t about logistics.  Yeah, I know, the title of the blog is “military logistics,” but today is June 6 and there are more important things to ponder.

I could stretch it a bit, talk about the enormity of the logistics effort that made the beachhead established in France on June 6, 1944 possible.  More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion.  Yup, the logistics effort, leading up to the day, on that day and across the weeks that followed, was a tremendous achievement.

Logistics made D-Day possible, but we have to remember that logisticians didn’t fight the battle. 

The Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force did.  They tried to cross that beach in Normandy.  I’ve been there.  It’s a big beach.  Many didn’t succeed.

According to the US Army, “more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France.  By day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded.”

My father was one of those guys.  Not just one of the 160,000 who went ashore, but one of the nine thousand who bled.

We have his decorations from that day.  Purple Heart.  Croix de Guerre.  An American, with a Croix de Guerre, that’s pretty cool.

We still have much of his battle gear.  We have his knife.  We have his uniform.  We have his helmet – with the hole in it from the shrapnel that also shredded his arm.

We even have his printed copy of the “Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen” D-Day message from General Eisenhower distributed to the troops that day.  My father carried that letter in his wallet until the day that he died, and we never knew that until he was gone.

So today, I don’t want to talk about logistics.  Today, I want to remember people like my father.  Today I want to pause for a moment because there are those who really did serve our country with honor and distinction.

Today I ask you to join me in saluting those patriots – like my father – who we are honored to serve as military logisticians.  They give our work meaning.

Thanks, Dad.