Never forget the debt we owe our country’s D-Day veterans

Historians and military leaders have long quibbled over the precise meaning behind the D in today’s landmark 70th anniversary of World War II’s D-Day, the largest seaborne attack in world history .

SNbSThe French maintain the D means “disembarkation;” others argue it stands for “debarkation;” still others insist it’s short for “day of decision.” Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied commander in the war, tried to settle the D-Day debate in 1964 by noting that any amphibious operation has a “departed date,” including the assault by 250,000 Allied troops on the beaches of northern France on June 6, 1944.

On this June 6, 2014, that semantic debate rages on in some circles. But there can be no debate as to the significance of this anniversary that recalls the beginning of the end of the “war to end all wars” that dealt a forceful blow toward crushing the spread of Nazi terror across the globe. As such, it is an awe-inspiring anniversary to be remembered , appreciated and treasured by all freedom-loving Americans.

The landings on the Normandy beaches of northern France, code-named Operation Overlord, began shortly after midnight with an extensive aerial and naval bombardment and the landing of U.S., British and Canadian troops. The target 50-mile stretch of the coast included five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword beaches. The operation began the successful invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the restoration of the French Republic, and played a major role in the Allied victory in Europe.

Of course, those signal successes came with supreme sacrifices. Allied casualties in the D-Day operation totaled at least 12,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, including 1,465 Americans.

MAHONING VALLEY D-DAY VETS

But for far too many years, far too many Americans have taken those sacrifices for granted. For many of us who were not even born by 1944, the attack remains little more than a footnote from our high school history books that we rotely memorized to score points on a pop quiz. In so doing, we failed the larger test of placing the courage, the honor and the gut-wrenching pain of our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the Greatest Generation in their proper and powerful perspective.

Consider, for example, the selfless bravery of Frank Bevilacqua, 92, of Boardman. When his ship ran aground near Omaha Beach, he used his gas mask as a flotation device to avoid drowning.

Consider the valor of Gideon A. Fetterolf, 93, of Newton Falls, a medic with the 1st Engineer Brigade amphibious assault unit on Utah Beach. He fought off strafing by enemy German aircraft and a bout with malaria to survive the campaign.

Or consider the horrors endured by Tom P. Vouvounos of Warren, a member of the 83rd Division of the 1st Army, commanded by Gen. Omar Bradley. To avoid the Germans, he hid inside a dismembered cow that had been blown apart by gunfire. According to Vouvounos, the battle scene shocked the senses: “There was blood and guts mixed up with the sand. We could smell the dead bodies. It would stay in your nose.”

The war stories of Bevilacqua, Fetterolf and Vouvounos serve as a microcosm of the resilient gallantry of the dwindling ranks of surviving American D-Day veterans. And whether we observe this day as Debarkation Day, Decision Day or Departure Day, it is a day for all to deliver deep indebtedness to those who fought with dogged determination to preserve and expand democracy in the Western world.