D-DAY - June 6, 1944

On this 69th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6 1944, I remember my Uncle - Homer Van Dennis. He was my Dad's nearest, older brother by 7 years, and served in the United States Army. He was a good-looking man with ready smile, who survived the beach landing and invasion at Normandy, France.  In the summer of 1968 - the year I graduated from High School – Uncle Homer died after suffering a massive heart attack while mowing his yard in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas.  Before his funeral his wife shared that, though her husband appeared gregarious, carefree and successful in every way, he actually suffered from a recurring nightmare - even on the night before his death –and be startled awake dreaming of his army buddies falling around him as they stormed the beaches and struggled up the cliffs of Normandy.  It seems that like so many others of that experience, he lived under a constant struggle and eerie sense of guilt that he’d survived ‘hell’ while so many others did not.

Uncle Homer never had children of his own but always showed great love to his nieces and nephews.  He bought me my first store-bought suit - from Reynolds Penland of Dallas – a high mark of quality and pride for a boy from Garland, Texas.  He was one of my childhood heroes - and still is - and so I remember him and those other ‘boys’ today – both those who fell and those who survived a day that turned the course of World War, and history, forever!

Pastor Sam Dennis
http://www.army.mil/d-day/