Operation Over "LORD"

By Scott Hyland

As I sit on my back porch and enjoy the cool breeze on this humid Sunday morning, I am reminded of the great sacrifices made by the men and women of the 1944 invasion of Normandy. Today, the air that we breathe is free, but we must never forget the great price that was paid for the current liberties we enjoy. Our freedom was not purchased with the currency of gold or silver, but with the most precious commodity known to man — human life.

Twenty-seven years ago, President Ronald Reagan reflected upon that great sacrifice as he commemorated the 40th anniversary of D-Day. If you have never listened to this speech, let me encourage you to click the following link and sit at the feet of one of the greatest orators of our time:



http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreaganddayaddress.html

Below is an excerpt of three of my favorite paragraphs from President Reagan's speech.

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love....

The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They fought — or felt in their hearts, though they couldn't know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. In Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. And in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: "Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we're about to do." Also, that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

President Reagan delivered this speech on the cliffs from the very location that Army Rangers some 40 years earlier had to scale. With every syllable Reagan spoke, he breathed the same air that was "signed with the honor" of those soldiers. Every time I listen to these words, I am reminded of the true test of a man's character, which collectively on D-Day was nothing more than the true test of an entire country's character.

That test is never more evident than when we face an aggressive enemy who is willing to stop at nothing as he threatens everything that we hold so dear with the lethal weapons of terror, oppression, and annihilation. Those men, on that sacred day, displayed before the entire world that aggressive enemies must be met with aggressive remedies, but those heroes also completely understood that their efforts would be in vain without the backing of the great hand of Divine Providence.

Today, the enemies we face are no less dangerous. Thank God, men and women are still serving in our armed forces, giving that "last full measure of devotion." As we face the next great test of our country's character, will we, as a nation, with the humility of our ancestors, see the wisdom of filling the churches, kneeling in prayer, and lifting our eyes to the One Ally who oversees all conflicts? Or will we fall victim to the folly of relying upon our own strength?

© Scott Hyland