D-Day plus 44

In 1988, 44 years after D-Day, these three Canadian soldiers who were part of the Allied invasion force returned to France. Their names are Bernard, John and Roy. They posed next to a sign marking the town of Caen–a place that saw heavy fighting as the Allied forces moved inland.

Photos like this one always deepen my gratitude for the soldiers and sailors who put everything on the line during some of the most intense fighting that occurred during WWII. These three Canadians survived the war, returned home, and got on with the business of life.

Seeing this photo reminded me that it was only in 1994–a full fifty years after D-Day–that my father began to find his voice and open up about his experiences in WWII. So many members of the Greatest Generation passed away without talking about what they had been through in the war and they took their stories with them to the grave.

Inspection of PT sailors at Melville, Rhode Island