Sixty-five Years Later
What were our chances on Omaha Beach,
and what lessons did it have to teach?
That we were not as brave as we thought
in this battle in which we were caught.
    What seemed to be most important now
    was how we could remain alive somehow.
    Hiding behind a mound of wet sand
    nothing seemed to be going as planned.
Yet the anticipated result
survived the disorganized tumult.
No one wins in such a brutal war.
We wondered what we were fighting for.
    Young men fighting on a foreign beach
    and survival was all it could teach.

Walt Abbott–10-21-08