Dog Green

I took this photo in 2017 of the sea wall on Omaha Beach. This is near the Vierville exit where the German defense was strongest.

I took this photo in 2017 of the sea wall on Omaha Beach. This is near the Vierville exit where the German defense was strongest.

Behind me is Dog Green sector where Company A, 116th regiment of the 29th infantry division came ashore. By day’s end, only 18 of 230 of them weren’t casualties.

These days I don’t know what to do with pride in my country. The phrase gets chucked around in frustrating ways by people who seem to love their agenda more than the people they serve. The temptation is to make a comment about how both sides are so screwed up (as if I’m exempt) but I hate that we’re so defined by our sides in the first place.

Units in the 116th regiment’s lineage fought the British at Cowpens in the American Revolution. They were part of Stonewall Jackson’s Stonewall Brigade at Manassas fighting against the United States. So on June 6th, 1944, the regiment fought and died under a flag they’d fought against attacking alongside their old nemesis, the British, a few beaches over. What a complicated history we have.

We get so much wrong. But on this beach, together, we did the right thing. And I’m so proud of that.