‘War is hell’

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — No one knows what Pvt. 1st Class Donald Axon was thinking as he came ashore Omaha Beach in France on June 6, 1944. No doubt, the 21-year-old’s thoughts were to his family back home in Lowell. But despite his horror at the carnage unfolding all around him during the Allied invasion against entrenched German forces, he was poised to do his duty in service to his country.

We don’t know what Axon was thinking, because he can’t tell us. The Lowell High School graduate was killed in action on D-Day, and his grave is one of 9,300 that stand in soldierly white rows at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, which abuts where the Allied forces came ashore, beginning the end of World War II.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan paid her respects to what she called “hallowed ground” in which Axon and so many other soldiers of that fateful day are laid to rest, during a congressional delegation visit to honor the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“You are right there looking out at the English Channel, that they courageously crossed, and I think the proximity of them laying to rest exactly where they fell, it’s just an image you‘ll never forget,” Trahan said by phone from Paris, where the delegation was staying.

Trahan spoke to The Sun after a day of ceremonies and events honoring the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers who turned back Hitler’s march of tyranny, hatred and oppression.

“Today was an emotional day,” she said. “I don’t know how many times I was moved to tears.”

She also said the day was uplifting given the presence of veterans who fought during Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious assault in history, that launched from Britain and crossed the English Channel to battle the dug-in German forces.

“When you talk to our veterans, many of them who are well over one hundred years of age, they still talk with such power about what they lived through 80 years ago,” Trahan said. “How they don’t want that for their children or grandchildren, and that war is hell, and we have to keep the peace, keep our alliances strong so that we deter war like this happening again.”

World leaders such as President Joe Biden, with First Lady Jill Biden, attended the ceremony under a beautiful blue sky and smooth seas, a dramatic contrast to the rough seas and low cloud cover of the historic assault.

Before the formal events marking the somber day, Trahan said she walked the cemetery, bearing witness to the “courageous” servicemembers from Massachusetts and elsewhere, who gave their lives. More than 400 servicemembers who entered the military through Massachusetts are buried in Normandy, including Pvt. Dominic Narciso, of Foxboro, and Lt. Warren McMurray, of Boston.

“When you go to an event like we were at today, you are reminded of the service, the sacrifice, and what they were willing to do to save our freedoms,” Trahan said.

The experience also reinforced for Trahan her duty of taking care of the country’s veterans.

“It leaves you with a feeling of now we have to have your back,” she said. “I stay in touch with my veterans so I can do my best to repay them for what they’ve done for us.”

The congresswoman has been active on veteran’s issues, including voting passage of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act. The bipartisan PACT Act, passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by Biden, is the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic-exposed veterans in the last three decades. More than 10,000 Massachusetts veterans have successfully accessed these newly available benefits and services.

Trahan’s offices in both Lowell and Washington, D.C. assist veterans with understanding and accessing their benefits.

“I do spend a lot of time talking to my veterans back home,” she said. “Oftentimes it falls into healthcare, but sometimes it’s just benefits and detangling the systems that they have to navigate. Sometimes, it’s small lifts and sometimes it’s big ones.”

Before she ended the call, long after midnight in Europe, Trahan’s thoughts went back to the D-Day ceremony.

“As someone who grew up in the Mill City and graduated from Lowell High, walking in Private Axon’s footsteps and those of thousands of others is something I’ll never forget,” she said. “It’s why we observe this day and remember these heroes with the reverence and appreciation they deserve.”

Along with Trahan was fellow U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, himself a veteran of the U.S. Marines who served four tours in Iraq. It was his first time in Normandy, a region that could be considered hallowed ground to American veterans due what was accomplished there 80 years ago, but also for the staggering loss of life it took to do so.

Beyond just being in Normandy, Moulton also had a chance to meet surviving veterans of World War II, whose numbers are dwindling as the years go on.

“It was incredibly powerful just to be in the mix of almost 200 living World War II vets,” said Moulton in a phone call Friday afternoon while he was still in France.

Moulton was also given the chance to read letters written by soldiers serving in the war, who he remarked were mostly just kids at the time. Being in such a place of significance while hearing these experiences from people who were there, Moulton said, was especially emotional to veterans of more recent wars.

“A Republican veteran and I were talking about this. It really hits closer to home when you understand, viscerally, what these men went through,” said Moulton. “Every American should stand in awe of what they did.”

Sometimes forgotten in these conversations too is that these American soldiers risked and lost their lives in defense of a country that was not their own.

“They gave their lives not just for America, but for France and for all of Europe. When they landed at Normandy or parachuted in, they were liberating the French people,” said Moulton. “Not Americans, but a people who understood freedom and democracy.”

While World War II ended with an Allied victory, preserving democracy in most of Europe, Moulton said fighting for democracy is just as important today as it was 80 years ago, pointing to Ukraine’s ongoing defense against the Russian invasion. While on the trip, Moulton saw support for the defense of Ukraine.

“(Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy got more applause than anybody else who was there,” said Moulton.

‘War is hell’

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