Today is more than a date on the calendar. More than the end of a long weekend. Today is sacred.

It is the day we pause. We remember. We stand in the quiet shadow of sacrifice and recognize the cost of our freedom. Nearly 700,000 warriors have laid down their lives in battle—from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror. They had dreams, families, futures. But when their country called, they answered. And they paid the ultimate price.

In just seven days, we will mark the seventy-seventh anniversary of D-Day. June 6, 1944. The day when 6,603 Americans were killed, wounded, or declared missing as they stormed the shores of Normandy. By the time Paris was liberated that August, more than 72,000 Allied troops had fallen. 153,000 more were wounded.

Here’s a staggering truth: 85% of those young men had never seen combat. The average age? Twenty-one.

They were barely more than boys, yet they carried the weight of the world on their shoulders. They fought a battle bigger than themselves, bled on beaches far from home, and gave their tomorrows for our today.

Back home, gold-star families bore the unbearable. A vacant seat at the dinner table. A silence where laughter used to be. The ache of a future without the son, the brother, the husband who never came home.

Today, we remember them.

We remember their courage, their sacrifice, their love for the soldier next to them and the family they left behind. We honor the heroes who never received a joyful homecoming on this side of eternity.

No, this is not just another holiday. It is a holy moment. A moment to bow our heads, to whisper our gratitude, to commit ourselves anew to the freedoms they fought to secure.

Because they gave up their lives so we could live ours.

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