JUNE 6, 1944

Seventy-five years ago

June 6, 1944

They went across the Channel

And opened the door

To the liberation of France

And the defeat of Hitler’s Germany

But D-Day on the beaches

Was a close thing in Normandy

American, British, Canadian forces

Were involved that day

Plus Free French elements

All going into the fray

In the British-Canadian sector

The beaches were Sword, Juno, Gold

That’s where their troops came ashore

So youthful and so bold

The beaches were Utah and Omaha

In the American sector

Utah wasn’t too bad

Omaha was almost a disaster

In the first wave on Omaha was

The First Infantry Division, the Big Red One

Veteran of North Africa, Sicily,

And a few wars later Vietnam

The other first wave division

At Omaha that day

Was the Twenty-Ninth Infantry

The Blue and the Grey

A National Guard Division

Far away from home

From Maryland and Virginia

The Old Line State and the Old Dominion

So set aside a few moments

On this anniversary

And imagine how it was

Wading ashore on Normandy