WILL THAULT: A soldier’s prayer

“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory! Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”

— Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, Order of the Day, June 6, 1944

On this day, 78 years ago, 12,000 transport planes took off from southern England under cover of darkness to deliver seasoned Allied paratroopers across the Channel, behind enemy lines, in preparation for Operation Overlord — the Normandy invasion. Later, in the early hours of the following morning, 4,000 American, British and Canadian ships — the largest armada in history — landed an expeditionary force of some 175,000 soldiers onto the heavily-fortified beaches of German-occupied France.

Still, there were no guarantees. Even Eisenhower, after giving the green light for the attack only hours before, scribbled a note intended for release, accepting sole responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame if we failed.

At 8 p.m. on this day, 78 years ago, Lt. Col. Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, called his men together in an orchard near the airstrip. Standing slightly above them along a hedgerow, he said: “Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do.

“God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.

“We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.”

“Oh Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.”

According to one account, “All were silent for two minutes as the men were left, each with his individual thoughts. Then the colonel ordered, ‘Move out.’”

Wolverton was never able to complete his mission, because he was killed a few hours later, sprayed by German machine gun fire while still in his parachute, descending into darkness above another orchard — this time over Saint-Côme-du-Mont, Normandy, France. But perhaps his personal mission wasn’t to kill after all, but to inspire. If such was the result, then it was “mission accomplished.”

On Wolverton’s previous orders, his battalion went on to carry out their assignment to destroy a vital communications link between the town of Carentan, near the Utah Beach landing site, and the occupying forces along the Cotentin peninsula. This action kept the Germans from making contact with reinforcements from the northwest, buying the Allies precious time to establish a beachhead and link up with paratroopers scattered behind enemy lines.

You may not have heard of Col. Wolverton, but his best friend and regimental commander in the 506th PIR may ring a bell. Col. Robert F. Sink was leader of 2nd Battalion’s Easy Company of the 101st Airborne, better known as the “Band of Brothers,” who, after helping liberate France, fought their way through some of the most famed battles in the European Theater, like Operation Market Garden and Bastogne. They were memorialized in a book by Stephen Ambrose and subsequent HBO miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Last week, on Memorial Day, we honored soldiers like Wolverton who gave their lives for our country and “brothers in arms” to defend an ideal we’ve held tightly throughout this as well as many other wars. Certainly, Gold Star Families and fellow veterans will never forget and forever hold fast to an unbreakable bond with fallen comrades, but what about the rest of us who haven’t experienced this sort of painful loss?

Maybe we thoughtlessly slipped up and said Happy Memorial Day or forgot to pause for remembrance between TV commercial breaks or grilling out last weekend. If so, it’s still not too late to do a little soul searching on the eve of D-Day 1944. The extraordinary courage previously mentioned didn’t start or end with The Greatest Generation. You’ll find it looming large in the shadows of both distant and recent history. Remember these heroes and thank a vet.

Lee Wolverton, VP of News for HD Media and grandson of Col. Wolverton, said it best in a recent column, “We mistake greatness for many things today. But the brotherhood of those men, my grandfather’s love for them and theirs for him, the kind that Christ described — ‘greater love hath no man that this, that he would lay down his life for his friends’ — this is the stuff of authentic greatness.

“America is starved for it now. It’s within all of us — and up to all of us — to change that. It’s about our love for one another and for our country, and finding comfort and security in the knowledge we are doing our best for what we believe is right.”

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