[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8182]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THEY WERE SOLDIERS ONCE--JUNE 6, 1944

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the seas were high and seasickness was 
rampant. The sky was gloomy and dark, and the rain was blindingly hard. 
The sun was hidden from the beaches below as 63,000 GIs, with thousands 
of our allies, stormed landing sites called Utah, Omaha, Gold, and 
Juno.
  The average age of the American soldier was 20; 2,500 of them died on 
the first day. It was June 6, 1944. It was D-day in World War II. It 
was a noble cause: free Europe from the Nazis.
  But today, the bootprints, the red crimson beaches of blood of the 
U.S. soldier are gone. The sea is calm, peaceful, as if it never 
happened.
  But at the top of the cliffs of Normandy, France, 9,387 white 
glistening crosses and Stars of David of the American fallen shine as 
an eternal memory that here on this spot the Americans fought and gave 
all.
  They came. They died. They liberated. We remember they were soldiers 
once, for the worst casualty of war is to be forgotten.
  And that's just the way it is.

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