VIDEO: Senator Peters Commemorates 80th Anniversary of D-Day, Shares His Parents’ WWII Story
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), a former Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and a member of the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee, released a video to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Peters also shared the story of his father’s military service in France during World War II, where he met and married Peters’ mother. Peters’ father, Herb Peters, served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in France following the invasion of Normandy, and his mother, Madeleine Vignier, grew up in Reims, France and lived under the difficult conditions of Nazi occupation. Madeleine Vignier Peters’ oral history of her experience during World War II was recorded for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, and can be viewed by clicking here.
“Today is a very important day in history. 80 years ago, Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy to liberate France and all of Europe from Nazi occupation,”Peters said. “It is an important part of history. But it is also an important part of my family history. My father served during World War II. He did not invade the beaches on D-Day, but he did deploy four months later across Omaha Beach which was the center of the American force attack.”
“But it’s not just my father, it’s also my mother. My mother was a young French girl growing up in France, and was forced to live under Nazi occupation for several years,” Peters continued.
“Something that I will always take the heart is to remember what people went through in that horrible war. The sacrifice that people went through,” Peters continued. “It reminds me in an incredibly personal way, from the stories from both my mother and father, that our freedoms, our democracy, our liberties, should never, ever be taken for granted. We should all remember that as we take our days each day at a time, we are literally standing on the shoulders of men and women who have gone through tremendous hardship to fight for and to protect the freedoms that we love so much.”
On June 6th, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allied Forces gained a foothold in Continental Europe. This operation, known as D-Day, was the largest amphibious invasion in military history and ultimately the turning point in World War II that led to the Allied Forces’ victory.
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Click HERE for video of Senator Peters’ remarks. Below is the text as delivered:
“Today is a very important day in history. 80 years ago, Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy to liberate France and all of Europe from Nazi occupation.
“It is an important part of history. But it is also an important part of my family history. This is very personal to me.
“My father served during World War II. He did not invade the beaches on D-Day, but he did deploy four months later across Omaha Beach which was the center of the American force attack.
“He walked across that beach after being dropped off from a landing craft to begin his service in Europe as an Army lieutenant in the Signal Corps.
“He talked about what that meant to him and his fellow soldiers as they walked across the beach in a very solemn march because they understood the incredible sacrifice of the men who died on that beach, as he then went inland to continue the war effort across Europe.
“But it’s not just my father, it’s also my mother. My mother was a young French girl growing up in France, and was forced to live under Nazi occupation for several years.
“He met her during the war. And her stories of living under Nazi occupation are particularly powerful. I mean, one that I will always remember is when she talked about how they were evacuating as the Germans were coming across the border into her northern French town, and they had to evacuate.
“She remembers very vividly the evacuation and how afraid they were as they were walking on the road heading south away from the invasion. But as they were walking south, north were French soldiers marching north to head to the front.
“And while they were doing that, German Luftwaffe fighter aircraft attack that column, attacking those soldiers, but of course, civilians, like my mother were there as well. They had to jump in the ditch and get away from the machine gunfire. In fact, a truck that carried a family just ahead of them was hit by a bomb and exploded and everyone was killed.
“And then after much, much hardship, they did eventually get back to their town, and found it occupied by the Nazis and had to live several years under that oppression and she has all sorts of stories.
“My father then met her. They fell in love. They got married and she came back to the United States. But it is something that I will always take the heart is to remember what people went through in that horrible war, the sacrifice that people went through. And it reminds me in an incredibly personal way from the stories from both my mother and father, that our freedoms, our democracy, our liberties, should never ever be taken for granted. And we should all remember that as we take our days each day at a time we are literally standing on the shoulders of men and women who have gone through tremendous hardship to fight for and to protect the freedoms that we love so much.
“And on this day, this is a day for us to all just take a little moment of time to think about the sacrifices that people have made so that we can enjoy the freedoms and liberties that we have in this country.
“And we have to realize that we can never give up that fight. It’s always threatened. But if we stay strong, we’ll continue to be a strong Republic and a strong country for years to come.”
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