D-Day: Remember The Greatest Generation

It is a symbolic day in modern world history that - for Americans - lives as a touchstone of pride and sacrifice within the memory of our souls.

By Rep. Richard Morrissete

The valor of our troops and the requirements of victory: all of the courage and selflessness we could muster on a foreign shore. To protect America and her promise of freedom was the hope of every determined soldier that day and for all of the days to follow to the end of the Great War.

As we approach the anniversary of the event that still stirs our American pride, I think of my dad, Robert Joseph Morrissette of Patton’s Third Army Engineers, marching through Germany to roust out and defeat the last of Hitler’s troops. And, how, even after the Armistice, he carried on to clean up the last of Mussolini’s terrible legacy.

I am the son of a great patriot who taught me by example the value of freedom. That for Americans there is no other choice but to serve for freedom carries with it a high price.

On D-Day, we cannot imagine the challenges our “greatest generation” soldiers faced as they were swept upon the beaches of a rocky coast in France. To live or to die that day were both possible outcomes of the campaign but not to fight was impossible for our patriots - our heroes - including Robert J. Morrissette, my hero, my dad.

Democrat Morrissette serves the people of District 92 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

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