To the editor:
I’ve had the privilege of being friends of several WWII veterans. I’ve asked their opinion of General George S. Patton. The answers covered the full spectrum from extreme hatred to “we would storm the gates of hell for General Patton.” Military discipline makes men. Men's warrior spirit of “kill or be killed” must be achieved regardless of personal feelings liberty provides. This warrior spirit showed up on the battlefields at Normandy 82 years ago.
D-Day, June 6th, 1944, our warriors on the battlefield feared the hell of tyranny, yet paid a price that passes the torch of “the holy cause of liberty.” Will we be remembered as “sunshine patriots and summer soldiers” or, as our forefathers before us, will we arise to the occasion and stand up for the liberty? Our legacy will put “we the people” on trial for posterity tomorrow. The Spirit of '76 first ignited in the words Patrick Henry poured through the heart into Tom Paine’s Common Sense must be reignited today:
“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:…”
101st Airborne Sgt. Harrison Summers exuded this valor. Pinned down by heavy fire, an officer ordered an attack on a row of farmhouses serving as German artillery barracks. At 25, Sgt. Summers led a patrol of 15 men somewhat reluctant to follow a stranger. A captain was immediately shot by a German Sniper. Admitting he was scared, Sgt. Summers said to himself, “I’ve got to finish it.” When it was all done, he was credited with killing 31 enemy soldiers. Afterwards, shaken, relating to another soldier’s concern: “Are you alright? He replied, “It was all kind of crazy."
Partisan spirit must surrender at the alter of liberty first. Today, you and I have a choice. Will we become like the “summer soldiers” who rolled over and went back to sleep, angry at Paul Revere for rudely waking their slumber? Or, as on D-Day, our men painting a glorious page of the price of liberty for future generations to read. The Longest Day at Normandy secured for us the longest liberty in history. Today, it must be reborn again in the hearts of our people before it will be exercised in the halls of government.
- Russ Payne,
Merrimack