Today is the 58th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy. Two things have me thinking about this today. First, I read the excellent book Band Of Brothers recently. It covers the actions of a company of the 101st Airborne, from training in Georgia right through the end of the war. They fought at Utah Beach, parachuting in behind enemy lines and knocking out a battery of German artillery.

The second thing is this week’s obituary from the Economist. The last survivor of the World War I battle at Gallipoli died last week at 103. I’m 33 now, and at some point within my lifetime the last survivor of D-Day will pass on. Then the last survivor of World War II (two uncles fought in it), then the last survivor of the Korean war (my father was an Air Force pilot), and maybe even the last survivor of Vietnam. We can’t forget what these ordinary people did for us. I’m too old to be drafted into any future wars, but I pray that my children will never have to make these sacrifices.