NORMANDY BEACHHEAD FRANCE, July 15, 1944 -- The beachhead that is the entrance
[indent]to the heart of the Nazi war machine. I can't begin to understand what it must have been 
like here over a month earlier. The shoreline is pockmarked with the holes of artillery and 
naval gun fire, giving a surreal almost otherworldly look to the brown sands of Normandy. 

Little remains of the massive undertaking that was the battle upon the sands of these fifty
odd miles of beach. The Allied engineers gave little thought to the placement of derelict tanks 
and vehicles of war as the beaches were cleared of all major obstacles following the success 
of the landings. There were armies of men waiting to come ashore after all. Thousands of 
tonnes of materials, and so many vehicles stock piled on Britain that the ones that had been
simply pushed up against the cliff sides were but a drop in the bucket of what had been and
would be committed to the greatest undertaking the free world had ever embarked upon.

The Tankers of 37th Tank Battalion and the men of the 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion made 
their landing just hours after mine. The massive LSTs opened their mouths and lowered their
tongues onto the beach, seeming to spit out the M2 tanks as if they had simply eaten too 
much for breakfast. The whole operation seemed to move slowly. The act of moving the 
lumbering machines of war from the vessels, over the beaches and to their staging area farther
inland was a feat among itself, but that was coupled with the many LCI's and smaller craft 
that brought in the two Battalions worth of men, smaller vehicles, weaponry, and supplies.
By the end of the day the job was complete and the eager men of the 53rd could be heard as
they made their way up the beaches talking about the fight to come and the victories they 
would surely win.

Their eagerness was all there. Their willingness to rush head long into the jaws of the Nazi
menace was the exact reason they were standing on this beach in Normandy. It was the reason 
that ordinary men like you and I had been able to land here just a month ago and lay down 
everything, because they knew the men to follow would be just as willing to do the same if it
meant the survival of the very liberty and freedom they had come to love. 

It was the reason they would surely do it again.[/indent]