Seventy years ago, about 15,000 Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy as part of the Allied invasion of Europe known as D-Day.
About 340 of them died that day, among 1,000 Canadian casualties. In the months following, more than 5,000 Canadian soldiers died.
Seven decades on, it's hard to imagine a military mission of that magnitude being launched in such secrecy across the English Channel.
It was long before the days of Twitter and the 24-hour news cycle.
It was also a time when other ideals held sway, including that of sacrifice and doing the right thing.
It's almost impossible for us to imagine what it was like for the Canadian soldiers who crouched in the landing craft on rolling seas that day,
the bravado of youth layered on top of terror. By all accounts, the scenes of carnage that waited were as terrible.
Those young soldiers, barely out of their teens, are old men now, many of them in their 90s.
The ceremonies this year could be the last most of them will attend.
As their numbers dwindle, the first-hand memory of the day grows dimmer.
Decades on, we are still learning the lessons of history.
Our challenge as we honour the last veterans of D-Day is to remember and appreciate what spurred young men to land on the beaches in the path of hell - the respect for liberty and human dignity, a belief in ideals that were bigger than themselves.
Our responsibility as Canadians is to continue to be worthy of their sacrifice.
