Opinion: On D-Day 77 years ago, victory was uncertain
Men of the American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming a coastal area code-named Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of the Normandy, wait by the chalk cliffs at Collville-sur-Mer for evacuation to a field hospital for further treatment, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June 6, 1944. These barges ride back and forth across the English Channel, bringing wave after wave of reinforcement troops to the Allied beachheads. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, left, reviews American troops at a base in England on the eve of D-Day, June 1944, during World War II. The initials AAAO on the steel helmets with a line across the As stands for "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow, Bar Nothing." The identification shoulder patches of the G.I.s are blotted out by the censor. (AP Photo)
Allied landings craft of unidentified type, right, burns just off the shore somewhere on the north coast of France on June 6, 1944 during the invasion of Fortress Europe. (AP Photo)
U.S. infantrymen wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies' June 1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France. An allied ship loaded with supplies and reinforcements waits on the horizon. (AP Photo/Bert Brandt)
Ducks (amphibious trucks) and a half-track follow foot troops ashore during the World War II opening invasion of France on a 100-mile front along the Normandy coast by Allied forces on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard)
U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies', D-Day invasion of occupied France. The assault began the liberation of France and Europe from German occupation, leading to the end World War II. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)
U.S. Army medical personnel administer a plasma transfusion to a wounded comrade, who survived when his landing craft went down off the coast of Normandy, France, in the early days of the Allied landing operations in June 1944. (AP Photo)
U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (AP Photo/Bert Brandt, File)
U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies' June 1944, D-Day invasion of occupied France. (AP Photo)
G. Scott Morris
The Rev. Dr. G. Scott Morris, M.D., is founder and chief executive officer of Church Health. He is a regular contributor to The Daily Memphian.
“We have seen so many movies of Omaha Beach that the event is embedded in our national psyche. From this side of the events, and with the help of Hollywood, it seems God-ordained that the response we all know was certain to lead to the victory we take for granted. It was, of course, anything but certain.”
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