It was 80 years ago today.  Never forget the sacrifice of the men who fought to liberate the world from evil.

Photograph by Robert F. Sargent

“The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” — General Dwight D Eisenhower

Painting by Olin Downs

Painting by Harrison Standley

Photograph by Robert Capa

Photograph by Robert Capa

Painting by Simon Smith

Painting by Ken Riley

Painting by Joseph Gary Sheahan

Painting by Joseph Gary Sheahan

“There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you won’t have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.” — General George S Patton Jr.

Painting by Manuel Bromberg

Painting by Manuel Bromberg

Painting by Laurence Beall Smith

Painting by Harrison Standley

“There’s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn’t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature.” — Barbara Kingsolver

Photograph by Michael Osmenda

Photograph by Christine Cantera

“They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt