[cannons firing] ♪♪♪ Peter Gallivan: As dawn approached on June 9, 1944, a group of American soldiers, members of C Company of the 82nd Airborne Division's 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, took cover in a shallow ditch southwest of the Normandy Hamlet of Cauquigny.

Their battalion had crossed the flooded Merderet River in the darkness of night before to flank the German forces holding the strategic causeway leading to a bridge over the river at a place called La Fiere.

But now as the Germans launched a fierce counterattack, the men found themselves cut off from the rest of their unit and in danger of being annihilated.

It was at that moment that a tall farm boy from Grand Island, New York, private first class Charles N. DeGlopper, shouted to his comrades to make their way back through the hedgerows to rejoin their full unit while he engaged the nearby Germans to provide a diversion.

Later, a noted military historian would refer to the four-day battle for the bridge and causeway at La Fiere as probably the bloodiest small unit struggle in the experience of American arms.

The fierce battle would produce several medal award recipients, but only two would be for the Medal of Honor, one of whom was Charles DeGlopper.

Just 19 months before, in November of 1942, Charles, known as Charlie to his friends, worked on the family farm in Grand Island, New York.

The town was a pastoral farming community located on the Niagara River just south of Niagara Falls.

The river forms the border between Canada and the United States.

Charlie attended a one-room schoolhouse on Grand Island at the time and ultimately graduated from Tonawanda High School in 1941.

There was no bridge across the river until 1935, so ferries were the only way to access the mainland back then, which made it hard for him to play intramural football.

But Charlie found a way.

He was a strapping young lad, standing well over 6 feet tall.

His yearbook inscription read.

female: An outstanding person in amiability, as well as his height.

Peter: In November of 1942, nearly a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Charlie was drafted into the US Army.

He reported to the Induction Center at Fort Niagara, all 6 foot, 7 inches, of him, weighing in at 240 pounds and wearing a size 15 shoe, an imposing figure to be sure.

But the army quartermaster was not ready for a recruit of his stature, so he was sent back home for a brief period while the supply channels processed his unique uniform and equipment requirement.

Eventually, the army came through and Charles was sent to Camp Croft, an infantry replacement training center in South Carolina, for basic training.

There recruits, mostly draftees, were sorted into training assignments and guided through a grueling 17-week training program.

Upon graduation, the soldiers were assigned to whatever units needed them the most.

They were regarded as being replacement forces, taking the places of frontline soldiers who had been killed or otherwise incapacitated.

Joe Synakowski: I served in France and Germany, and I was @actually a replacement soldier.

They were discharging the soldiers that were during the war, and they needed replacements.

So they replaced them soldiers with us.

@John Long: There was 3,000 ofúus that all arrived the same day at Camp Wheeler, Georgia.

We were from all around the country and we-- no one knew one another.

@But the interesting thing aboutúthat is that within ten days we all knew one another.

We loved one another.

We were training together.

We found out we were in-- we were, really, what kind of training we were in was what they call intensive infantry training.

And we found out at that time that was in the-- in the early part of July when we arrived.

And then the end of July, actually, we found out what we were really being trained for was the invasion of Japan.

Peter: They would all be needed and were vital to the war effort.

Charles was assigned to the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, a part of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The weapon he was assigned was one appropriate for his size and stature, the M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle, the BAR 5.

Initially developed during the First World War, the BAR was issued to infantry squads after 1938 to serve as a light machine gun.

The gun fired the same ammunition as the standard issue M1 Garand Rifle used by most soldiers in World War Two, but whereas the Garand was a semiautomatic, meaning one had to pull the trigger each time to make it fire, the BAR was fully automatic which means it could fire up to 650 rounds per minute.

However, each magazine could hold only 20 rounds.

That meant in combat, a soldier only had a few seconds of fully automatic rifle before he would have to reload another magazine for another 20 rounds to [audio gap].

Weighing in at nearly 20 pounds, it was not a weapon for the frail.

But Charlie, he could heft that BAR like it was a toy.

The 82nd Infantry Division had come into being in August of 1917.

Since that time, the division had the unique distinction of consisting of members representing all 48 states.

So it acquired the nickname "All American," represented ever since by the double As dominating its division insignia.

Serving with distinction in Europe in World War One, the division was demobilized after its service overseas and its members were either retired or scattered throughout the then-peacetime army.

As soon as World War Two was declared, the division was reactivated early in 1942 with the 325th Infantry as one of its original regiments.

In August of that year, the 82nd became the first airborne division in the history of the US Army and would become forever known as the 82nd Airborne Division.

The 325th became a glider infantry regiment whose soldiers would ride into battle in lightweight glider airplanes, towed behind cargo aircraft.

Prior to its being sent overseas, the regiment would be joined by two parachute infantry regiments: the 504th and 505th.

Those soldiers, as their name might imply, were to jump out of a cargo plane and descend by parachute into the target zone.

This new airborne division was under the command of Major General Matthew Ridgeway.

@He demanded the best in trainingúand decorum from his officers and enlisted men.

Their training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was constant.

The paratroopers trained and jumped while the glider troops @maintained practice takeoffs andúlandings and got used to their Waco CG-4A gliders.

Physical fitness was the number one priority.

Ray DeGlopper: Basic training.

It was, like, eight weeks, but it seemed like it was eight years.

I mean, you'd just run, walk, walk, walk.

Gee gosh, I never did so much walking in my life as then, in my--just that's-- one of the things about after that, after basic training, I thought life was nice.

Peter: And while there was always some light tension underlying between the paratroopers and the Glider Infantry, General Ridgeway took measures to keep the two factions at ease with one another.

After all, they would need to be able to fight together to be able to take on the vaunted Wehrmacht in Europe.

In the spring of 1943, the 82nd was finally ordered to war.

The division was alerted for movement, although to where, only a few knew.

It was certain they were going to be deployed to a combat zone when the troopers called in from the field training to make out wills, allotments, and insurance papers.

Once their personal papers were all in order, they were then confined to their unit areas.

Married troops who had families nearby were granted short passes to look after any last-minute arrangements for their loved ones.

Troop trains were then loaded and the soldiers were all delivered to ports on Staten Island and Hoboken, New Jersey.

The troop ship sailed on April 29th, 1943, carrying the entire division and all of their equipment.

That included their Waco gliders broken down and crated up to travel in five shipping crates per glider.

After the dangerous Atlantic Ocean passage, the division disembarked in Casablanca on May 10th, 1943.

They were moved by train to us to Oujda, Morocco, and then by truck to Kairouan, Tunisia.

When the troopers finally clambered out of the box cars, they looked around at where they were to set up their camps.

They were in unanimous agreement.

They were in hell.

Oujda was nothing more than a railroad station with one or two buildings.

The troopers set up their two-man pup tents, arranged with parade ground precision in rows that formed perfectly straight company streets.

But the neatness of the tent cities belied the realities of life in the Sahara Desert, which was made more unbearable by a potent combination of extreme heat, wind, sand, and ever present flies.

Even the water which had to be trucked in was so heavily chlorinated that it burned the soldiers's throats.

Mott Janney: Meal times were the worst.

Peter: Lieutenant Mott Janney wrote.

@Mott: All agree that theúgreatest blessing would be to be able to live without the necessity of eating.

Peter: According to Lieutenant Arthur Kroos.

@Arthur Kroos: The simple act ofúeating became a study of balance, coordination, and futility, going through every mess line with our mess kits.

One hand was constantly fanning the flies off.

We had to eat in constant circular motion.

@If you let them land, you had toúpick them off, and ten more would land while you were doing that.

Peter: Lieutenant Kenneth B. Shaker recalled.

@Kenneth B. Shaker: The swarms ofúflies were so thick that when we @drank our coffee, we learned toúclench our teeth to strain out the dead flies.

Peter: Parachute Infantry regiments of the new 82nd @Airborne Division had theirúfirst taste of combat when they dropped onto the island of Sicily as part of operation Husky in July of 1943.

@Charlie DeGlopper, along withúthe 325th, however, remained in North Africa.

They would not get their first chance to face the enemy until that September.

When that chance finally came, they would be carried into battle not by air as they'd trained to do, but instead by sea, boarding beach-landing craft.

The regiment was sent to Salerno, Italy, to reinforce the American units already there.

On September 15, at about 2300 hours, they landed at Paestum, about 18 miles south of Salerno, where they awaited orders.

Daybreak on the 16th brought those orders.

The 2nd Battalion was to reboard the landing craft and move farther north to the town of Maiori.

Here, they would be attached to Colonel William Darby's Ranger Task Force to relieve Ranger units currently holding positions on the 4,000-foot Mount St.

Angelo di Cava.

The battalion was welcomed the next morning by fierce German artillery barrage.

The Germans probed the battalion's lines but despite numerous attempts to throw the Glidermen off the mountain, the Americans stubbornly held their ground.

It was here that the Regiment suffered its first casualties of war, but Charlie was not there with them.

He had been ordered back to England from North Africa as he was still not properly equipped.

The 82nd arrived in the European theater of operations on the 9th of December, 1943.

They disembarked at Belfast, Ireland.

From Belfast, they moved by train and by truck to a string of various Quonset hut camps northwest of the city.

Now, Ridgeway was not pleased with the area because there were scant training facilities, limited space, and nowhere to conduct airborne operations.

All of this was exacerbated by the short days of winter.

General Gavin had unsuccessfully tried to procure a better location for the 82nd.

With one of its regiments, the 504th, still fighting in Italy, the decision was made to attach two new Parachute Infantry regiments, the 507th and 508th, to the division upon their arrival from the European theater.

In mid February, the reorganized division moved from Northern Ireland to the Nottingham, Leicester, Market Harborough area in the English Midlands.

There, the training program increased in intensity.

A parachute school was opened to train the replacement, especially those who volunteered to fill out the 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and the various provisional parachute units in the division.

Unit exercises of increasing size and complexity were held.

Joe: Yeah, we had to scoot under the barbed wire and have the 30-caliber shooting over our heads.

Of course, they, they shot high.

Ray: Nothing hard about it.

You just crawled underneath the wire and kept your-- kept yourself down.

Peter: Joint exercises with the troop and carrier pilots were conducted to train both the troops and the pilots battalion parachute drops and extended glider exercises with both the Waco and the British Horsa gliders.

Those were conducted with some flights lasting as long as two hours.

Joe: One of my things I wanted to do in life was jump out of an airplane, and I did.

Peter: Long forced marches were common as were live fire exercises during which the troopers fired both allied and enemy weapons and learned how to operate armored vehicles.

The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a large troop-carrying glider.

It was capable of transporting a maximum of 30 fully equipped troops.

It also had the flexibility to carry a Jeep or an Ordnance QF 6-pounder anti-tank gun.

The Horsa Mark I had a wingspan of 88 feet and a length of 67 feet and when fully loaded weighed in at 15,250 pounds.

The tow cable was attached to the nose wheel strut rather than the dual wing points of the Horsa I. The Horsa was comprised largely of wood.

It was described by aviation author H.A.

Taylor as being.

H.A.

Taylor: The most wooden aircraft ever built.

@Even the controls in the cockpitúwere masterpieces of the woodworker's skill.

@Peter: Operation Neptune was theúairborne component of the allied invasion of Normandy.

It began on the night of June 5th, prior to the D Day naval landings on June 6th.

The 82nd Airborne Division was given three objectives prior to taking their C-47 aircraft and their Waco and Horsa gliders to begin their assault on Hitler's fortress, Europe.

They were to capture the strategic town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise several miles behind Utah Beach, which was the westernmost of five invasion beaches, as well as secure two bridges over the Merderet River.

One of these was locatedsouthwest of Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Chef-du-Pont, while theothers spanned the river near a small hamlet called La Fiere, nearly due west.

It was the quickest access to or from Utah Beach.

A visitor to either of these small, seemingly-insignificant bridges today might find it difficult to imagine their importance in June of 1944.

@David J. Conboy: To try toúsecure a very important bridge.

And you know, the bridges were really important because we wanted to prevent the Germans from reinforcing what was happening.

So keeping tanks, armored formations, from being able to @move over bridges to attack theúAmericans was really important.

And then, conversely, making sure that they maintain the bridges so that the Americans could move forward, use those bridges and other assets to cross and move further into France to secure the beachhead and move on to victory.

@So those small tactical bridges,úevery one of them, was really important.

Peter: In fact, the bridge at La Fiere was later described by one veteran as, quote, "A smaller stone affair and little more than a large culvert."

But because the Germans had flooded much of the area behind Utah Beach, there were only limited roads or causeways by which the invaders could move inland from the beaches.

By the same token, German troops responding to repel the invaders would need to utilize these same roads to destroy the invaders before they could get off the beach.

Thus, to control these river crossings was needed to ensure that the soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division could move inland off of Utah Beach while also minimizing the German ability to respond and drive them back into the English Channel.

The hedgerow area of Normandy, France, would take on a grim significance in World War Two as it made progress against the German defenders all the more difficult.

Plots of land were divided by ancient rows of dirt alongside irrigation ditches, thick vegetation on these dirt mounds would create walls of up to 16 feet high.

A typical square mile of this battlefield might contain hundreds of irregular hedged enclosures.

In response, American soldiers developed rhino tanks, tanks or bulldozers fitted with large hedgerow-cutting modifications that would allow them to blast through the thick walls of dirt and vegetation.

On the night of June 5 and the morning of June 6, C-47 Dakotas took off for France.

Their cargo: specially trained jumpers known as Pathfinders.

Their job was to get to the ground and mark the landing zones for the paratroopers who were following behind them.

Those paratroopers were to quickly capture key points and deny access routes to counterattacking Germans.

But paratroopers are exposed to the vagaries of the wind and they were scattered.

Some landed miles off their marks in almost complete darkness.

Still, the Pathfinders found and marked their landing zones in anticipation of those paratroopers.

But there's an old saying: No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.

It was true that night.

The men on board those C-47 Dakotas trusted those ground markers.

The German anti-aircraft was fierce and unnerving.

Overloaded men carrying up to 70 pounds of equipment landed in shallow water.

Some were drowned.

Units were scattered and cohesive battle groups struggled to assemble.

They were jumping into positions already held by Germans.

Small unit actions and individual skirmishes were fought throughout the night.

Daylight brought reinforcements and some much-needed relief.

The operation began to go a bit more smoothly as gliders, loaded with troops and equipment, continued to land, or crash, in waves.

Once released from their tow planes, glider pilots had just short seconds to make landing decisions.

Their mission while descending rapidly was to look for an open area, dodge the hedgerows, and keep their craft somewhat level.

And that was complicated by Germans on the ground shooting at them.

Gliders only landed once and hopefully upright.

Charlie DeGlopper and his 1st Battalion of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment left Ramsbury Airfield in England early on D Day plus 1, June 7, bound for landing zone W, south of Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

They were joined by portions of a company of the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion.

While some were delivered off course and others crashed, most of the gliders reached their intended landing zone safely.

The 325th was initially kept in reserve, but by June 8, the fight for the bridge at La Fiere had become critical.

The Americans had succeeded in capturing the bridge and defending it against constant German counterattacks.

But German forces held the narrow causeway to the west of the bridge as well as the small hamlet of Cauquigny about 500 yards beyond it.

To make matters worse, there were two small groups of the 507th Paratroopers that had become surrounded and pinned down on the German side of the river.

They were in danger of being wiped out.

Thus, the fresh 325th Glider Infantry was called into action to help break the stalemate.

It was decided to send the Regiment's 1st Battalion which included Charlie's C Company on a flanking maneuver to the north to link up with the isolated pockets of the 507th and attempt to drive the German defenders back from the rear.

It was about 11:30 p.m.

when Charlie DeGlopper's C Company led the rest of the 1st Battalion north and across the flooded ground marked out by the division's engineers.

As they emerged from the marsh and began to make their way toward the orchard where Lieutenant Colonel Charles Timms and some of his soldiers from the 507th had been pinned down by enemy fire-- [guns firing] [guns firing] They came under fire themselves from a chateau to their right, referred to as the Great Castle.

The men of C Company turned to subdue the Germans in the Castle, while the rest of the battalion continued toward Timms's Orchard in Cauquigny.

Accounts differ in their details, but the 1st Battalion advanced through the hedgerows toward Cauquigny with some success.

Though, as daylight approached, the Germans were able to mount a more co-ordinated counterattack with superior numbers which halted the glider troops's advance.

As the 1st Battalion of the 325th was forced back because of the German attack, a small group from Company C which had found itself somewhat forward of their comrades became cut off from the rest of the company.

Faced with enemy rifle fire from the vicinity of Cauquigny and from a machine gun positioned among the farm buildings several yards in front of them, their situation was dire indeed.

To attempt to cross the hedgerows and the open ground beyond to rejoin their company would almost certainly bring hail of enemy fire down upon them.

But to remain where they were would mean certain capture or destruction for the entire unit.

And that was the moment that the tall farm boy from Grand Island took charge.

Private Charles DeGlopper told his comrades that, putting his Browning Automatic Rifle to good use and laying down a curtain of fire, he could occupy the Germans long enough for the rest of the unit to make good rapid withdrawal to better cover the rear.

Scorning the concentration of enemy automatic weapons and rifle fire, according to the official citation, he stood up and walked from the ditch onto the road in full view of the Germans.

He sprayed their positions with assault fire and his 6 foot, 7 inch presence in such an exposed position naturally drew German fire.

As long as he could keep firing, he could keep their heads down.

And when he stopped to change magazines, it was not long before he was hit.

Notwithstanding his wounds, he reloaded and kept up a devastating fire on the Germans.

But again, he had to pause to switch magazines and he was hit again.

He dropped to one knee and continued to engage the enemy, as the remainder of his comrades made their good escape.

He continued firing on the Germans.

And finally, they brought the big man down in the middle of the road, silencing his deadly rifle for good.

@David: The idea of patriotism isúa overarching theme that makes everybody fight.

@But in the end, especially afterúhaving served probably over a year with his comrades, you know, fighting in North Africa @and Sicily and Italy, they builtúthat camaraderie and friendship, and Charlie did not want to let his comrades down.

Peter: Despite Private DeGlopper's gallant stand, the assault by the 1st Battalion of the 325th had failed its objective.

But later that day, a frontal assault by the remainder of the regiment along with elements of several other paratrooper units would finally clear the causeway at La Fiere, completing the last of the 82nd Airborne's initial objectives.

When his comrades returned to the scene of DeGlopper's final stand, they reported the ground around him was strewn with the bodies of dead Germans.

His citation read, "He was a member of C Company, 325th @Glider Infantry, on June 9,ú1944, advancing with the forward @platoon to secure a bridgeheadúacross the Merderet River at La Fiere, France.

At dawn the platoon had penetrated an outer line of machine guns and riflemen, but in doing so had become cut off from the rest of the company.

Vastly superior forces began a decimation of a stricken unit and put in motion a flanking maneuver which would have @completely exposed the Americanúplatoon in a shallow roadside @ditch where it had taken cover.

Detecting this danger, Private First Class DeGlopper volunteered to support his comrades by fire from his @automatic rifle while theyúattempted to withdraw through a break in the hedgerow, 40 yards to the rear.

Scorning a concentration of enemy automatic weapons and @rifle fire, he walked from theúditch onto the road in full view of the Germans and sprayed the hostile positions with assault fire.

He was wounded but he continued to fire.

@Struck again, he started toúfall, yet his grim determination and his valiant fighting spirit could not be broken.

@Kneeling in the roadway,úweakened by his grievous wounds, he leveled his heavy weapon against the enemy and fired burst after burst, until he was killed outright.

@He was successful in drawing theúenemy action away from his fellow soldiers who continued the fight from a more @advantageous position andúestablished the first bridgehead over the Merderet River.

In the area where he made his intrepid stand, his comrades later found the ground strewn with dead Germans along with @many machine guns and automaticúweapons which he had knocked out of action.

PFC DeGlopper's gallant sacrifice and unflinching heroism while facing unsurmountable odds were in @great measure responsible for aúhighly important tactical victory in the Normandy campaign.

@The bridgehead at La Fiere andúcauseway were secured after this action and the Germans never threatened the American army ownership again.

@The 325th continued in action asúthe Army pushed across Normandy, the roads from the bridgehead were clear, and supplies poured inland.

Over 250 GIs died over and around that one small bridge.

Charles DeGlopper was one of them, and emblematic of the American spirit."

Charlie was buried in a nearby cemetery reserved for fallen American soldiers.

On February 28, 1945, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor.

On March 10, 1946, the medal was presented to his father, Charles, at a ceremony at Trinity Evangelical United Brethren Church on Grand Island.

Ray: My grandfather was the one that got notified.

I will say that I don't remember too much, but I see some of the pictures where I think I was down there when my grandfather received the medal.

Peter: On July 7, 1948, his body was returned to the United States and brought to Buffalo by train.

A horse-drawn caisson brought his body from the train station to the Connecticut Street Armory where his body lay in state for two days along with two other returned servicemen.

Charlie was finally returned home for his funeral, held at the Trinity Church on Grand Island.

With a hero's salute, he was laid to rest at the Maple Grove Cemetery on Stony Point Road.

♪♪♪ Peter: In 1962, American Legion Post 1346 acquired the land for the Charles N. DeGlopper Memorial in the center of Grand Island.

VFW Post 9249 was named in his honor in November of 1965.

And an ongoing drive to improve the memorial continued through the years.

On June 5th, 2021, a statue of the Medal of Honor recipient was unveiled along with an updated monument honoring 17 Grand Islanders who were killed in action from World War One through Afghanistan.

The story of Charles DeGlopper and his sacrifice is the story of America.

Individuals, male and female, of all races and religions are plucked from their everyday lives from cities, villages, and towns, to serve a greater good.

They know that evil must be vanquished wherever it festers, possibly at the expense of their own lives.

To die on distant shores, surrounded only by your comrades-in-arms may be the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the American way of life for our families and all of those who carry the torch of freedom into the new dawn.

The events at the La Fiere bridge in France are not forgotten.

In Normandy, its current inhabitants have never forgotten the American lives that were sacrificed in those days by allied soldiers.

There are numerous memorial sites, statues, and precious memories everywhere.

There's a memorial plaque for Charles DeGlopper and a statue known as Iron Mike that's representative of the American @paratroopers who rained down onúthis area in 1944 to fight for their liberty.

They have never forgotten.

The area is a major tourist site now with organized tours and individuals descending on the area, many to observe the 80th anniversary of the D Day invasion.

David: These brave and selfless souls who gave their lives in combat service to our country and the defense of freedom across the world, we mourn them because they lost their physical lives defined by years, but they also lost their future lives defined by endless possibilities, possibilities of families, vocations, and continued contributions to their nation and their communities.

Peter: Here in the US, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, both of which were formed to honor and celebrate the men and women who stood to defend their country in times of crisis, still serve their communities in many ways.

VFW Post 9249 and American Legion Post 1346 welcome new American veterans from every branch of the services every day.

@On June 9, 2024, the 80thúanniversary of Charlie's gallant stand, the veterans's organizations on Grand Island @stood together to honor him andúto commemorate what he did and what his stand still means to us today.

In the Charles DeGlopper Memorial, crowds gathered to hear the story told.

US Army Major General David Conboy summed it all up beautifully.

David: "To whom much is given, much is expected."

So each one of us must respond to these expectations and fulfill our solemn and sacred responsibility to love and serve others.

I ask that you join me as we re-dedicate ourselves in service to our nation and our communities, each in our own way, and in remembrance of all of our heroes, and especially today Charlie.

Our presence here today is important and meaningful, and we can each find other ways to express our patriotism and gratitude, subordinating ourselves to the greater good by serving our country, by serving our community, and each other in many different ways.

Peter: Many who served in the past were present to take part in this ceremony.

John: I am deeply concerned today that our young people are as not aware of the importance of what America is all about.

It really deeply concerns me, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag means so very much.

The flag itself means so very much.

And I today, I just feel that we've got to do more to make our younger people realize how important this country is.

But more importantly, we've got to make people realize the great sacrifice that was made for us to have these freedoms we have today.

You know, whatever reasons God spared my life during the timetable of my service, every day, there's not a day goes by that I don't think of the 400,000 young, they were 18-, @19-year-old soldiers that neverúcame back home, never had the @opportunity to come home hereúand fall in love and get married @and have families and enjoy allúthe freedoms that we have today.

And the freedoms we have are so precious.

And I just feel that today in @this country, we've got to find a way to make people more or less-- more aware than ever before of what a great country this is.

This is America.

This is-- the freedoms we have are unbelievable.

úJust the freedom to have freedom@of speech and the ability to assembly the way we do.

The assembly to do the things we do.

And yet I know that underneath the surface, I still feel there are forces in this country that would like to take those things away from us.

My point is with the price that we've paid, and as I pointed out, God spared my life for some reason or another, but the price that we paid with the young people, Charles DeGlopper as an example, we must never let people forget how great this country is, the price we've paid to have the freedoms we have today.

It's America, the greatest country in the world, and God is with us every step of the way and has been.

We've got to keep it that way.

We have to keep it that way.

Peter: Eighty years ago, the full might and the prayers of the nations embodied in the prime of the free world threw themselves headlong into a solid curtain of fire and led against an oppressive totalitarian dictatorship bent on enslaving all of the world.

The cost was high and the outcome never guaranteed.

Could these young men from the United States, England, Canada, France, and assorted expats from other nations, stand against the vaunted battle-hearted Wehrmacht of Germany?

Could our boys stand up against Hitler's Superman?

Well, they did, and in doing so, they lit a new light of liberty which has lasted for 80 years, a light that nations everywhere can look up to in hope.

David: We're commemorating what Charlie did 80 years ago and the importance of patriotism, of service to our nation, to our communities.

And I think we have to remember that democracy is fragile and that we have to earn it, we have to fight for it, and we have to be prepared to die for it, as Charlie did.

Peter: We call them the Greatest Generation now, for surely, that is who they were.

Some of the boys who served were present to take part in this ceremony.

Let us never forget that the price of freedom is costly and those who borne that price should be honored by all of us, no matter what conflict they served in, for every one of them is an American hero.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ May they all rest in peace wherever they may lie.

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