The Death of a Hero

I just received the news. A hero has passed on…quietly and modestly, as he lived, a believer in God. A hero for us all.

Early on the morning of June 6, 1944 Roberto Martinez, a paratrooper from the 101st Airborne Division, with painted black marks under his eyes, climbed aboard a plane in England. In the dark morning as the airplane took him over the English Channel and into Normandy the Germans opened fire. “It was like Christmas with lights all over the place,” he said. The airplane kept flying until the men jumped out, one after another after another after another. Finally, it was Roberto’s turn.

“I tried to hide my parachute after I jumped. Everything was dark because they dropped us in the early hours and before the landings were to begin. I couldn’t find my cricket, that funny sounding thing that was to be used by the paratroopers to signal one another, but someone approached me and I heard his cricket.”

The invasion of France had just begun. Roberto Martinez along with all the other thousands of Americans began their heroic effort. And now his life’s journey has ended. May he and all the other heroes who kept this country safe from dictators not be forgotten.

Our Veterans, Our Heroes

It is entirely appropriate to say something about our heroes today on Veterans’ Day. If it were not for the soldiers who fought in WWII, we might not be able to do the things we are doing today.

Our soldiers are not heroes because they killed enemy soldiers. They are heroes because they preserved our liberty, our freedom to live as we are able to live, to go where we please, to worship wherever we choose. They sacrificed for us.

Their fighting for us who waited back home was an unselfish act. Risking their lives for freedom is a concept some might not even appreciate. But if you understand what it is they did, tell a veteran you appreciate his or her efforts. Let them know we are grateful.

God bless us all. And May God bless our country.