Since 2008, I have worked at the elections every time. Unlike some of the other temporary election workers, I report to different precincts every time and meet as a consequence a large array of different and interesting people. If I've told this story on my blog before, I apologize, but it's very appropriate for today.
On November election day 2008, I was assigned to a fire station in Henderson, NV. Towards the end of the day, an elderly couple came into the polling place. The wife was pushing her husband along in a wheelchair when they came up to me. At the time, I was tasked with assisting people who couldn't stand at the voting booth, and so I stepped up to the man. When I did, I noticed a specific military ribbon sewn into his hat, which bore the symbol of a specific US Army unit. I recognized them both and asked the man if he was involved in the assault on Normandy.
He had indeed. It was his first military engagement. He hit the beach in the third wave if I recall correctly, and fought his way through Europe over the next few years as an infantryman. I knelt, extended my hand, and thanked him for his service. He began to cry.
My supervisor immediately came flying over. It is of course not appropriate for poll workers to make voters cry. The man's wife explained what had happened enough to satiate her, but she shot me a stern look before returning to her post. The man proceeded to vote and then returned to speak with me briefly.
Over the course of my life, I have come to know personally several of the men involved in that. I have met a member of the 82nd Airborne, one of the bomber pilots who told me about some of their struggles, and this infantryman. My paternal grandfather served in the infantry in the pacific theater.
Too often, I think, we forget that the people who made that day happen were ordinary men. Most of them were younger then than I am now. Many of them died within hours of landing in France. Some of them left widows and children behind them.
We remember the Maine, the Alamo, and Normandy for a simple reason. They remind us to think what offering we are willing to sacrifice on the altar of freedom to vouchsafe our liberties. They remind us that some few laid the costliest sacrifice on the altar of freedom.
The previous weekend, we observed Memorial Day. I went to Valley Forge, Ft. Mifflin, Ft. McHenry, and Ellis Island to remember the sacrifices. I don't know that a lot of men are buried at those sites per se or that we know precisely where, but I thought of the thousands of men who had enough courage to do their duty.
No larger invasion force has ever been assembled and deployed. It was an incredible gamble of machines and men. To their memory, courtesy of the History Channel:
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