It was the Day of Days.

On the eve of the invasion, the Allied commander penned a letter in the event of defeat.  “The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do,” he wrote. “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

Before dawn, 13,000 boys fell out of the sky into the hedgerows of Normandy.  My mother-in-law’s father was among them.  Don Bowman was a radio man in C Company, 501st Regiment, 101st Airborne.  Each by each, the boys flew off the stick into a hail of fire.  One out of five would die that day.  Bowman did not.

There was the Day of Days.

And then there were the days after.  

Bowman’s military records hint at his story.  That year the 101st fought their way across Europe.  Operation Market Garden.  The Ardenne.  Battle of the Bulge.  Liberation of Dachau.  Eagles Nest.  One Purple Heart. A Bronze Star for meritorious valor.

Bullet after bullet.

Medal after medal.

Body after body.

Until victory was had.

But even in victory, the price paid cannot be measured.  In 1969, estranged from his family, alone in Los Angeles, an alcoholic traumatized by war, Don Bowman  purchased himself a cemetery plot.

When asked to list friends or family, he wrote, “None.”

Those boys gave their lives to save Europe.  And now that confederation is being abandoned for want of leadership and the erosive force of nationalist and isolationist fervor.

On this day I think of Don Bowman.

I think that perhaps we owe him more than simple remembrance.