As the nation today marks the 66th anniversary of what many historians call the most complex amphibious assault in history -- the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy, France -- debate simmers among policymakers and military analysts over whether the United States should maintain its ability to conduct such a campaign.
The Navy and Marines on Friday completed the largest amphibious-training exercise since 9/11 on the West Coast. Military members, scholars and historians say those who participated in D-Day hold a special place in history for their role in a war that united the country for a common purpose. The D-Day campaign led to Germany's surrender in World War II less than a year later, on May 7, 1945.
Yet, some applaud Defense Secretary Robert Gates' contention that such military skills might be irrelevant today.
"We have to take a hard look at where it would be necessary or sensible to launch another major amphibious landing again, especially as advances in anti-ship systems keep pushing the potential launch point further from shore," Gates said last month in a speech to the Navy League in Maryland.
Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at Washington's Center for Defense Information, said Gates is right to question how much the government spends on amphibious-assault capabilities -- particularly when the last time U.S. forces used the tactic in such a way was six decades ago.
"One has to make a judgment on what the real likelihood is that we'd face that situation again, and what we can and can't afford," Wheeler said. "We are spending more on the Defense Department in inflationary dollars since 2002. And for that, we have the smallest Army, Navy and Air Force since World War II."
James Carafano, a defense analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think thank, believes those arguments are foolhardy.
"Secretary Gates' appreciation of warfare is mindless," Carafano said, adding that the policy reduces America to a "monocapability" war-making machine. "It's like being totally reliant on one antibiotic."
Carafano called such an approach a budget strategy that has nothing to do with threats.
"They're accepting risk by cutting corners," he said. "And the way you do that is, you pretend the risks aren't there."
Others maintain D-Day remains relevant because of the intricacy of the operation.
Elements the Allies employed during the battle such as logistics, maneuverability and joint-force mobility always will matter -- whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or a future war, said Jerry Comello, a military studies professor at the Army War College in Carlisle in Cumberland County.
"Combat is still combat, whether it's among nation-states or other factions," said Comello, a retired Army colonel who served two tours in Vietnam. "It still requires planning and understanding the enemy, anticipating how the enemy will react."
About 160,000 Allied troops came ashore on the heavily fortified coastline of northern France on June 6, 1944, said Randy Papadopoulos, a Naval History and Heritage Command historian based at the Pentagon. The night before, about 24,000 paratroopers landed behind German lines. In all, D-Day involved about 300,000 people, 13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships and landing craft.
"It was a spectacular number of people, particularly when you consider that someone was shooting back," Papadopoulos said.
The shooting continued as Okley McGriff drove his blackout truck off a naval-vehicle carrier onto a stretch of Normandy beach about 4 a.m. the day after D-Day.
"Everything was hot," said McGriff, 89, an East Liberty resident who grew up in Bloomfield. His job was to drive a truck with no lights at night, transporting whatever was needed -- troops, food, bedding or fuel.
Driving in the dark wasn't hard; he trained for that.
"Not knowing where to go once we landed or where you're at -- and nobody telling you anything -- that's what scared you," said McGriff, who served in the Army from fall 1942 until November 1952. His military career included 13 months in the Korean War.
D-Day is historically relevant for the simple fact that it worked, said Glenn Matamoros, 44, a former Navy SEAL who lives in Glenshaw.
"Losing World War II would've meant the basis for Western civilization would've taken a dramatic turn," he said.
Coming across the English Channel eight days after D-Day, Paul Nied could hear the "boom boom boom" of large guns firing close to where he was headed: Utah Beach.
"That was a little scary," said Nied, 91, of Shaler, a member of a rifle company. By the time Nied arrived, Allied forces had penetrated about two miles inland, and the beaches were clear. "But the Germans didn't know exactly where we were going to land," he said.
Matamoros, who served in one of the military's elite units for 10 years, has great respect for what men like McGriff and Nied did. Nied was wounded on June 23, 1944, when shrapnel from a German 88 mm artillery gun ripped into his left buttock, he said. He was honorably discharged from the Army on Jan. 8, 1946, as a tech sergeant.
"When I meet a guy who was on Omaha Beach, that's pretty compelling. There's a pretty strong emotion that goes with that. I'm well aware of what those guys did," Matamoros said.
Celebrating D-Day is important culturally, too, said Turadg Aleahmad, 31, a doctoral student in human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, who grew up in Los Angeles and lives in Squirrel Hill.
"World War II brought the country together, and D-Day focused that further with the common purpose of defeating the Nazis," said Aleahmad, who never served in the military. "We don't have that today. There's so much disagreement about the direction our country should go in."
It's good to remember the elation Americans felt at the end of that part of World War II, he said.
"When so many sons were going out to die, a perspective existed that we wanted war to end," he said. "I hope people remember how much suffering occurred through World War II and how valuable, how joyful peace is."
Matamoros and other veterans interviewed for this story expressed uniform respect for all members of the American military -- but say D-Day veterans remain special.
"To meet someone who knows, who was there, who had that outstanding experience -- that is a piece of history, that is awesome," said Meredith Odato, 24, a third-year University of Pittsburgh law student who lives in Shadyside. Odato is a former Marine officer candidate who broke her leg in 2008 during a combat-obstacle exercise in Quantico, Va. The break was so severe, she had to leave the Marines.
"When I see June 6 on the calendar," she said, "I know that's a date that changed the world."
