and behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. and before me are the men who put them here. these are the boys of pointe du hoc. these are the men who took the cliffs. these are the champions who helped free a continent. these are the heroes who helped end a war. gentlemen, i look at you and i think of the words of stephen spender’s poem. you are men who in your "lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor."
i think i
know what you may be thinking right now -- thinking "we were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day." well everyone was. do you remember the story of bill millin of the 51st highlanders? forty years ago today, british troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. well, they weren’t. they looked up and saw bill millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him.
lord lovat was with him -- lord lovat of scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, "sorry, i’m a few minutes late," as if he’d been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he’d just come from the bloody fighting on sword beach, which he and his men had just taken.
there was the impossible valor of the poles, who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of europe as the i