We were told to stand by for an important announcement. I thought, “Here we go with another lecture of dos and don’ts,” but this one was very different! Over the PA system, we heard the voice of The Man himself, Supreme Commander, AEF, General Dwight D. Eisenhower! I’ll never forget his words:
“Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war and place at our disposal great reserves of fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!
I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!
Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking!”
Jesus! I felt a shiver like an electrical current pass through me! The whole picture became crystal clear at that moment! All the training, the “yomps” in full combat gear in the pouring rain, the endless push-ups, the digging of still another foxhole, the chicken-shit rules, the continual “dos and don’ts” lists, the crawling under barbed wire while live machine gun rounds zipped over my head, the assault exercises done over and over again until I was sick of ’em; it all faded into a background that seemed small, blurred, and insignificant. Like a magnifying glass focusing light rays, I saw in my mind a clear picture of what I had to do and how to do it. It became obvious we were on a mission that transcended anything in our past! We were going to rise above ourselves and accomplish something that will be so monumentally important it will change the way people live! We’re the tip of a spear that we’re gonna shove all the way up Hitler’s ass! The General is right; the world will be watching us this day like a hawk! We’re the guys that’ll be in the history books when we pull this off! I looked around. There was total silence in the bay except the thrumming of the Javelin’s engines. The speech had pumped up everybody on the ship! I saw a lot of wet eyes looking at nothing in particular and tight jaws. We knew a lot of us had a one-way ticket for this trip, but we knew the road back home was gonna be through Berlin, and we were ready to kick some serious German ass! We were going to blow through France and Germany like shit through a goose! God had better have mercy on those poor sons-a–bitches on the beach, ’cause we ain’t!
