D-Day taught veterans the 'inhumanities of war'
Richard Main and 160,000 other men stormed the beach at Normandy, France, 68 years ago today. And at the age of 90, the lesson he learned that day is as evident to him now as on D-Day itself.
War should always be "the last answer," Main, of Carroll, Iowa, said during his visit to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"I made a lot of good friends, and lost a lot of good buddies," Main said, recalling his friends among the 9,000 killed or wounded on June 6, 1944.
Main is echoed by fellow veterans traveling with him on the flight from Iowa to the national memorial, organized by the Eastern Iowa Honor Flight, a non-profit that helps veterans travel to memorials.
Robert Schurk, an 87-year-old native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sees D-Day as a lesson in the "inhumanities of war."
When the troops reached Normandy, Schurk was training to be a basic electrician in the Army.
And when the Allied forces liberated France, he saw the destruction of war firsthand when he joined up with a team that was repairing the damage.
D-Day marked a turning point in World War II, the deadliest military conflict in history. It was the moment that then-Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said he would accept "nothing less than full victory" as he ordered the assault that liberated France and began the crusade that ended Adolf Hitler's regime.
Paul Beronich never traveled overseas during his enlisted years, but he remembered feeling full of pride and confidence, inspired by the unity of the Allied forces.
"Then we were together, all the Allies," the 90-year-old Des Moines veteran recalled.
