Obama Pays Tribute to D-Day Survivors of ‘Unimaginable Hell’

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Source: Bloomberg

Obama Pays Tribute to D-Day Survivors of ‘Unimaginable Hell’
By Edwin Chen and Julianna Goldman

June 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, in France to commemorate the 65th anniversary of D-Day, paid tribute to the allied forces who landed at Normandy and endured “unimaginable hell” to start the liberation of Europe.

“Long after our time on this Earth has passed, one word will still bring forth the pride and awe of men and women who will never meet the heroes who sit before us: D-Day,” Obama said at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Omaha beach, one of the invasion’s landing sites.

Obama is nearing the end of a five-day trip that included visits to Germany, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where he made a much anticipated speech to the Muslim world. Addressing veterans and dignitaries at a windswept, 172-acre cemetery today containing the graves of 9,387 U.S. soldiers, Obama evoked vivid imagery of the D-Day landings in June 1944.

The allied forces were met with “odds that weighed against their success,” Obama said. The paratroopers missed their marks, and fog kept Allied planes from hitting their targets, he said.

“So when the ships landed here at Omaha, an unimaginable hell rained down on the men inside,” he said. “Many never made it out of the boats.”

Obama was accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama. Also at the ceremonies were French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Prince Charles and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He paid tribute to the living survivors of the invasion.

Veterans

“Perhaps more than any other reason, you, the veterans of that landing, are why we still remember what happened on D- Day,” Obama said. “You are why we come back.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw17G6x.F1FM