Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Maybe the last opportunity to honor the veterans of that battle while a few are still with us. A couple encounters I have had with WWII veterans may help illuminate some of the history involved:

In 2004, I was on a plane with a group of D-Day veterans on their way to an event in honor of the 60th anniversary of the battle. The man sitting next to me was a veteran of the 29th Infantry Division, which landed on Omaha Beach - the landing site that saw the heaviest combat that day. When I asked him what it was like, he said words I will never forget: "They call us the Greatest Generation. But really we were the generation that was lucky not to get killed." Sadly, all too many DID get killed that day. If you want to get a sense of what it was like at Omaha Beach in those early hours, watch the first 30 minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan (the rest of the movie is not as realistic).

In 1982, my parents and I crossed the English Channel on a ferry. Among the other passengers was a group of Canadian WWII veterans. They were on their way to an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1942 Dieppe raid. That operation was something of an early rehearsal for the D-Day invasion many months later. The Canadians spoke movingly of their awful experience. Dieppe was a total disaster. Some 3600 of the 6100 troops who landed (mostly Canadians, but also a few Americans and Brits) became casualties. But the Allies learned some valuable lessons that were later put to good use. The Germans, for their part, became overconfident. Dieppe is still remembered as a national tragedy in Canada. But it is mostly forgotten elsewhere. More generally, we tend to forget that D-Day wasn't just an operation that took place on one day. It involved years of prior preparation, during which many gave their lives.

The veterans I met in 1982 and 2004 are probably no longer with us. But I will remember them, and I hope you will too.