Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson invoked the American soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy during World War II while discussing how he will continue to fight for the Republican presidential nomination at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

“We have to begin to think about those who come behind us. Because what would have happened to us if those who preceded us were little chicken livers. What if they weren’t willing to take risk?” he asked. “What if on D-Day our soldiers invading the beaches of Normandy had seen their colleagues being cut down, a hundred bodies laying in the sand, a thousand bodies laying in the sand — what if they had been frightened and turned back? Well, I guarantee you they were frightened, but they didn’t turn back.”

“They stepped over the bodies of their colleagues, knowing in many cases that they would never see their homeland or their loved ones again. And they stormed those Axis troops, and they took that beach, and they died,” he continued.

Carson said that the American people still need to fight.

“Why did they do that? They didn’t do it for themselves. They did it for you — and they did it for me,” he said. “And now it’s our turn. And what are we willing to do for our children, and for our grandchildren?”

The retired neurosurgeon then pivoted to American politics and his presidential campaign.

“Are we willing to stand up? Or are we afraid that somebody’s going to call us a nasty name? Or that we’re going to get an IRS audit? Or that somebody’s going to mess with our job? You know, we have a lot less to lose than they did,” he said. “And the people who are always telling me to hang in there, don’t let them get to you. Believe me: Do not worry about it, because the stakes are much too high.”

Watch part of Carson’s remarks: