The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance-a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.”Įvery Man a Hero: A Memoir of D-Day, the First Wave at Omaha Beach, and a World at War He praised the heroism of the victorious allied forces, spoke of reconciliation with Germany and the Axis powers, which had also suffered greatly, and reminded the world: “The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. Twenty years later, President Ronald Reagan delivered a soaring address at Pointe du Hoc, overlooking the beach. Eisenhower simply granted troops a holiday, declaring that “formal ceremonies would be avoided.” In 1964, Ike revisited Omaha Beach with Walter Cronkite in a memorable CBS News special. On June 6, 1945, just a month after V-E Day, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. The now-annual D-Day commemorations initially dispensed with pomp and circumstance. “I'd been in hospital for almost a year after D-Day, in England, then back in the States, before I was able to walk and really get around too good.” “When I came out of the army I weighed 130 pounds,” Lambert says. Unconscious, his back broken, Lambert was tended to by medics and soon found himself on a vessel heading back to England. Lambert’s heroics only ended when a landing craft ramp weighing hundreds of pounds crashed down on him as he attempted to help a wounded soldier emerge from the surf. Impelled by instinct, training and a profound sense of responsibility for his men, he rescued many from drowning, bandaged many others, shielded wounded men behind the nearest steel barrier or lifeless body, and administered morphine shots-including one for himself to mask the pain of his own wounds. Lambert was wounded twice that morning but was able to save well more than a dozen lives thanks to his bravery, skill and presence of mind. Within hours, casualties mounted into the thousands. In the opening minutes of battle, by one estimate, 90 percent of the frontline GIs in some companies were killed or wounded. As they came ashore, they faced withering machine gun, artillery and mortar fire. Soldiers charged forward in chest-deep waters, weighed down by as much as 90 pounds of ammunition and equipment. Many of the landing craft were swamped by high waves, drowning most of their men. Pre-dawn aerial bombardments had landed uselessly far from their targets naval gunfire support had ended amphibious tanks were sinking before they reached land. Drenched, weary and seasick from the nighttime Channel crossing in rough seas, the GIs faced daunting odds. In the early dawn of June 6, 1944, Lambert’s medical unit landed with the first assault wave at Omaha Beach, where Wehrmacht troops were especially well-armed, well-fortified and well-prepared. When D-Day finally arrived, after years of planning and mobilization, the Big Red One was at the point of the spear. Lambert, then 23, was but one soldier in the largest combined amphibious and airborne invasion in history, a mighty armada of some 160,000 men, 5000 vessels and 11,000 aircraft-the vanguard of the Allied liberation of Western Europe from what Churchill had called “a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” One of the returning American vets is 98-year-old Arnold Raymond “Ray” Lambert, who served as a medic in the 16th Infantry Regiment of the army’s storied First Division, the “Big Red One.” The youngest D-Day vets are now in their mid-90s, and it is generally understood, if not necessarily said aloud, that this year’s major anniversary salutes may be the final ones for those few surviving warriors. One telling measure: As of mid-May, just three of the war’s 472 Medal of Honor winners were still alive. For those who saw the fiercest combat, the numbers are even more sobering. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that fewer than 3 percent of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still living. "Ray's Rock" on Omaha Beach, where medic Ray Lambert was part of the first wave during D-DayĪs world leaders and assorted dignitaries join the throngs of grateful citizens and remembrance tourists in Normandy this year to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, one group in particular will command a special reverence: veterans of the actual battle.
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