Standing on the windswept beaches and bluffs of Normandy, France, a dwindling number of ageing veterans of history's greatest air and sea invasion received the thanks and praise of a world transformed by their sacrifice.
The mission now, they said, was to honour the dead and keep their memory alive, 75 years after the D-Day operation that portended the end of World War II.
"We know we don't have much time left, so I tell my story so people know it was because of that generation, because of those guys in this cemetery," said 99-year-old Steve Melnikoff of Maryland, standing at Colleville-Sur-Mer, where thousands of Americans are buried.
"All these generals with all this brass that don't mean nothing," he said. "These guys in the cemetery, they are the heroes."
The anniversary was marked with eloquent speeches, profound silences and passionate pleas for an end to bloodshed.
