In Case of Failure
Above is a handwritten press release scrawled by General Eisenhower so hurriedly that he wrote the date as July instead of June. It is called the 'In Case of Failure' message. We ask you to take a moment and think about what it would have meant for that message to have been delivered. Had it been read by President Roosevelt. Had it been turned into a carefully scripted speech to be edited, re-typed, and broadcast over the airwaves.
What if, instead of a prayer on June 6th, the presidential address had told of the failure to gain a satisfactory foothold? That the troops had been withdrawn. That those who fought did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. That we had failed.
What would the world look like today?
Though D-Day will never hold the same weight for us as it did for those who lived it, we owe them our honor, respect, and gratitude. Because of them, we won. And we’ll never have to know what the shadow might have turned into, had we not.
As Ronald Reagan once said, “Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for.”
To the boys of Pointe du Hoc
The men who took the cliffs
The champions who helped free a continent
And the heroes who helped end a war.