President Franklin Roosevelt didn’t just speak to the nation on June 6, 1944 as American service members assaulted the beaches of Normandy, France foreshadowing the beginning of the end of World War II.
He prayed.
And on Tuesday, the 79th anniversary of D-Day, a plaque with the words Roosevelt prayed was dedicated at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Elliott “Toby” Roosevelt III, the great-grandson of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, said among its many legacies, the Normandy landings represent the delivery of humankind to a better world where people reaffirm, at great cost, the central ideals of human dignity, liberty and the rule of law – ideas upon which the country was founded.
“At a time when the outcome of the great contest to sustain those values hung in the balance, the President of the United States chose not to make a speech, but with the people of this nation to make a solemn request of the Almighty, a decision reflecting a world view defined by humble acknowledgment of the limits of man and of man’s ultimate dependence upon a just, all powerful loving God.”
Jane Droppa, chair of the Friends of the National World War II Memorial, said Roosevelt’s prayer was heard by an estimated audience of 100 million.
“It was one of the largest mass prayers in human history,” she said. “That prayer is now memorialized by a plaque dedicated today here at this sacred place of remembrance.”
Roosevelt’s D-Day prayer was not part of the memorial when it was completed and dedicated in 2004. In 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law the World War II Memorial Prayer Act directing that the prayer be added to the World War II Memorial.
Former Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Congressman Bill Johnson (R-OH) introduced legislation in Congress that authorized the addition of the D-Day prayer to the memorial. The legislation stipulated that no federal funds could be used to implement this directive and Friends took on the responsibility of designing and funding the project at the request of the National Park Service.
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Portman called D-Day a day of both monumental loss and monumental triumph, “where the fate of the free world really rested on the shoulders of young men as this prayer says, drawn from private life into battle.”
A $2 million grant by Lilly Endowment Inc. allowed Friends to complete the effort, begun in 2015, to add Roosevelt’s D-Day Prayer to the World War II Memorial and to restore the Circle of Remembrance – the area where the prayer is placed.
“You’ll notice that the plaque is positioned so the Atlantic Arch is in the viewer’s direct line of sight as they read the plaque, creating a link between Roosevelt’s words and the sacrifice on the Normandy beaches,” said Jeff Reinbold, superintendent, National Mall and Memorial Parks.
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As part of the ceremony, WWII veterans and other guests presented wreaths in memory of the 9,000 Allied soldiers killed or wounded during the invasion.
To learn more about the Friends of the National World War II Memorial, visit here.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.