“All we can do is remember,” President Ronald Reagan said softly and slowly on Veterans Day in 1985 at Arlington National Cemetery.

The president’s inflection, careful resolve and solemn phrase conveyed the immeasurable debt we owe to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

On Thursday we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which thousands of men – some just boys – stormed the beaches of Normandy in France for no other purpose than the defense of freedom and the pursuit of liberty.

JUNE 6, 1984: REAGAN ON 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY

On what may be one of the final opportunities for us to celebrate their sacrifice as the number of living D-Day veterans inevitably shrinks, I ask that we continue to take on the incredible task of conveying the immeasurable debt we owe them, and that we always remember.

President Reagan also said on that Veterans Day in 1985 that those who make the ultimate sacrifice for their country give up two lives – the one they were living and the one they would have lived.

D-Day is widely known as the turning point of World War II. When I reflect on the outcome of the invasion, I see the life of freedom being lived throughout Europe and the United States. I shudder to imagine the alternative life that would be lived if not for the progress made by the brave Allied forces that day.

Had the Allies lost, how many more Jews, Polish people, people with disabilities, and non-Germans would have been slaughtered? Would the generations that followed ever experience the fruits of democracy?

To prevent such a fate, failure was not an option on June 6, 1944. Failure was, however, a weight carried heavily by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on the eve of the long-planned invasion.

None of these men did what they did for recognition. Those who fight in defense of their country rarely do. They did it because their country depended on them, and they wanted to prove to the world that tyranny would be fought in any corner where it lived.

“The eyes of the world are upon you,” the storied general told his men. “... you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

The enormity of that charge cannot be overstated. It was laid on the shoulders of thousands of young men, many of whom I now have the honor of representing in Congress – men like Keith Bratton, John Grenek, Henry L. Ochsner, and E.T. Roberts.

These heroes come from the greatest generation of men and women our country has ever seen. The debt we owe them as a nation is immeasurable and cannot be overstated.

Remember them.

Remember Keith Bratton, whose plane was headed toward Normandy when its engine lit on fire.

Remember John Grenek, who landed on the beaches of Normandy soon after recovering from an injury in a hospital in Ireland.

Remember Henry Ochsner, a member of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, later known as the “Band of Brothers.”

Remember E.T. Roberts, who personally received Gen. Eisenhower’s message before plunging into the bloody sea the next morning.

None of these men did what they did for recognition. Those who fight in defense of their country rarely do. They did it because their country depended on them, and they wanted to prove to the world that tyranny would be fought in any corner where it lived. Not only would tyranny be fought against, but freedom would be fought for.

Tuesday marked the 30-year anniversary of the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, in which millions of people gathered to advocate for the same freedoms thousands of men died for on the shores of Normandy.

The desire to live, speak and love freely is one humans have and will continue to die for – it’s contagious. We cannot take those freedoms, nor democracy, for granted in the United States, as I fear many have come to do.

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We in the United States may not face the same threats nor ever experience the same conditions seen on the shores of Normandy in 1944, but we have a moral duty to uphold the principles thousands of Americans died for on that day.

And so on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, may we recommit ourselves to defending freedom and fighting any threat to our nation’s principles in any form, and may we never forget those courageous American patriots who died doing the same.