John Wayne

Reporter's Notebook: Normandy battlefield echoes current strains of war

I didn't understand what it meant to be an American until I stood on Omaha Beach.

 Two weeks ago I was in northern France, a guest of U.S. Army Europe and the current commanding general Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, whom I had first met in Mosul, Iraq, after a bruising winter following the surge. His troops had turned the tide in what seemed like a losing war. Al Qaeda was on the run and, as with Afghanistan today, alliances were frayed.Hertling asked me to join his Army "staff ride" to the battlefields of Normandy with about 30 generals and staff officers, some of whom were about to deploy to Afghanistan. The "staff ride," I soon learned, is a tradition that dates back to Napoleonic times. An Army general takes his staff on a ride across the battlefields of yore. They are a history lesson and strategic leadership training exercise all wrapped into one. I was invited to observe and also to give the perspective of the press -- recorders of military history since the earliest battles.On the day...

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