June 6th

D-Day

Sorry for a double post in one day. If you like this blog, please share it with your friends and sign up for the email.

I am still in awe of D-Day. I have been my whole life. As a little kid, I read history books and specifically World War Two history every chance I could get. It was my great fortune to serve on the National World War Two Museum board of Trustees in New Orleans. I highly urge you to visit the museum physically, but spend some time on their online site. If you had an ancestor that served in the war, buy a brick for them.

A lot has been written and said about D-Day. Politicians love to wrap themselves in the flag. It always makes me uncomfortable. I am proud to be an American and I devoted to the founding principles of the country. But, war makes me super uncomfortable because of the consequences. I can remember walking to the bayonet assault course when I was a basic cadet at USAFA and we chanted, “Blood, blood, blood makes the grass grow.”

I don’t have any great stories about D-Day. However, I have met people that were there. I have visited the beaches and when you look at the terrain you still wonder how they did it. Dr. Al Baumgarten was in the first boat in the first wave. He passed away but he talked plenty about it and thank goodness he did.

I was very very lucky to make the acquaintance of a man named Walter Ehlers. He went ashore in the “back half of the first wave” at Omaha Beach. I recall he was on Dog Red. His brother Roland was down the beach in the Green sector. If you remember the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan when the Higgins boat gets blown to bits before it reaches the shore, that’s what happened to Roland.

Walt was luckier.

Once when he told me about D-Day he said he thought the greatest thing he ever did in his life was lead his platoon ashore and no one was wounded. Truly amazing. Walt never ever beat his chest or talked big about what he did during the war.

I told him I didn’t think I could have done it. He said you could with the right training. If I was following Walt, I think I could have at least gotten off the boat. Hell, what am I talking about? I hate boats. I for sure would have gotten off the boat.

Walt had the presence of mind to tell the Navy man driving the boat not to put the ramp down. They went over the side. The water was deep and over most of their heads. Walt grabbed one of his troopers under his arm and they dog paddled until he could feel sand under his boots.

Then, they ran as fast as they could through everything to the first sand wall.

I took Walt to meet Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly once when they were doing a tour in New Orleans. I had been the in-studio guest host on Fox Business and arranged it. Beck introduced Walt to the crowd and the whole place rose to its feet clapping and screaming. At the end of the evening, there was a continuous line that randomly formed just to hug him, shake his hand, say hello, thank you, or take a photo. Walt smiled and was sheepish about it the whole time. Just so understated.

I met Walt through my friend Mark Konjevod. Mark passed away last year. Today, I am sure he is hanging out with Walt and Roland eagerly listening to stories.

Mark brought Walt to the CME Trading floors one morning. I had arranged for breakfast at the CME Club. I got a badge cut for Walt to wear when he went on the floor. After breakfast, up we went.

I have seen a lot of luminaries on the trading floor but no one ever topped the reception Walt received. What was amazing about it was that it was unannounced and spontaneous. Luminaries had their names in lights on the back wall of the trading floor, and people knew they were coming. All I did with Walt was bring him on as my guest and used a little clout to get a badge cut.

People walked up to Walt when they saw the Medal of Honor around his neck and read his badge and just hugged him. My outtrade clerk Margie practically jumped out of her skin. Guys in the pits on the lower floor stopped everything to shake his hand, hug him, say hello, whatever.

Then, we went upstairs to the Eurodollars.

The entire place erupted. Trading stopped. One of my friends Tony Fasano and his partner Josh pulled Walt up to the top step of the Eurodollar Option pit. People on trading desks put down their phones and started clapping. Guys on phones and headsets were talking to people all over the world telling them who was standing in front of them.

Walt stepped down from the top step and walked down the aisle and off the floor as the clapping and screaming echoed.

The other day I was on a WW2 Reddit forum and some schmuck was going on how Americans were just like the Nazis since we enslaved people etc etc etc. It pisses me off.

I wanted Walt to go to my kids’ independent private school back in Chicago and do a “Morning Ex” but I was told that they didn’t want to support “war”. They didn’t know Walt or any other people that served. I don’t know one that “supports war” in the way they construe it.

We can never forget them. There was only one European D-Day and I will let historians argue about its significance. Walt liked to say it was his “third amphibious landing'“.

There are not too many left that fought in either Europe or the Pacific. Treasure them while they are still here. I am not sure America could pull off D-Day today. I don’t think the top brass has the same character of Generals like Marshall, Eisenhower, Bradley, Ridgeway, and the other legendary officers that planned and lead it. I am also not sure America has the right stuff that the legions of enlisted men had. They haven’t been educated correctly. It’s hard to punch someone in the mouth when you have been told your entire life you are guilty.

When you look at places like Pointe Du Hoc, it takes your breath away. Not the beauty, but the sheer guts it took to do what the Army Rangers did there that day and in the ensuing days when they were trapped.

So, take a moment and pause today. Thank God that such men lived. Hopefully, men like them live today.