Should have posted this yesterday, but better late than never. Hard not to see the calendar turn to June 6 and not think about the incredibly brave men who stormed the beaches at Normandy more then sixty years ago. Ed Morrissey’s post over at Hot Air says far more, and does the occasion far more justice, than I ever could:

Think of that picture above and the courage it took to take that first step. Many of the men who saw this vista died without ever getting past the shore. What made them take that step? Certainly discipline strengthened them, but these men knew that they faced one of the most evil regimes the world had ever known — and that the Nazis wouldn’t stop with Europe. Evil could not be contained, nor appeased; it had to be fought and destroyed, and that it would take a tremendous sacrifice to end it. They went forth to battle evil, and even if they as individuals fell, these men knew that liberty and justice would defeat evil, and that their sacrifice would make that victory possible.

Reading war correspondent Ernie Pyle’s description of the scene a day later is both powerful and chilling; it’s a reminder of the importance journalists at that time had of painting a picture both accurately and effectively in those pre-television days – not just because that was the job they knew they had to do and accepted, but because they knew the majority of their readers had relatives and acquaintances of all kinds in one of the war theaters at that time, and that’s how the war was brought home to them – in pictures and in words (even if both were heavily censored at the time). This was a time of giants, of men young and old called upon to do courageous acts of courage and bravery because the freedom of the world depended on it.

They most certainly don’t make them like that anymore.

Check out these cool pictures at Life.com. Amazing times.