Editor:

They were the men who never talked about the horrors of war or the bravery required on the beaches of Normandy. They volunteered to do a job and they did it.

The Germans had the bluffs highly fortified and the men on Omaha Beach were easy targets.

Our Uncle William “Bill” Klaus, of Sussex, New Jersey, was one of these men. He was an original member of the elite 2nd Ranger Battalion and a platoon leader. The mission of A Company was to move up the beach, working in groups of 2 or 3 to systematically clear out the entrenched Germans. They were constantly fired on at point-blank range. 2,400 American soldiers died on that one beach that day. 12,004 Allied troops were killed, wounded, missing or captured in the D-Day offensive.

His lieutenant, Bob Edlin, was wounded in both legs. Bill, though wounded himself, crawled back under heavy fire to drag him to the sea wall. All the while, he sheltered him with his own body. Once his lieutenant was being cared for by a medic, Bill cleaned his own weapon and the weapons of other wounded soldiers. They still had a job to do. Bill would recover in England and head back to other killing fields at the battles of Brest and Hurtgen Forest. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to First Sergeant and received the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.

What can be said about the commitment, loyalty, bravery, patriotism, honor of our men on D-Day? They were part of the Greatest Generation. It was because of who they were that they could do what they did. They valued freedom above all else. WWII was a cause they could believe in and fight for and die for. God bless them all and the legacy they left for the warriors who followed and for what they sacrificed to keep us safe and free.

Now our freedoms, the envy of the world, are threatened from within. There are those who would destroy the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They would take the “power of the people, by the people and for the people” and invest it in a centralized government, which they would control. Large, powerful, centralized government always becomes a dictatorship. The fight for freedom is not over.

Greg & Lucy Klaus

Farmville