D-Day 56 years later

Andrew J. Higgins with President Harry Truman

I was born nearly ten years after D-Day, June 6, 1944, but that date was stamped indelibly on my conscious as I grew up. I knew it was a turning point in the war, obviously, but I recognized it as more than just the first big push back at Hitler's stranglehold over Western Europe. It was costly in terms of human life, but the reason historians like the late Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley felt the effort succeeded was due in no small part to the influence of New Orleans and Higgins Industries, the local shipping company run by Andrew Higgins that provided the flat-bottomed landing craft that stormed the beaches like Omaha, Juno, Gold, Utah and Sword. General Dwight David Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces said it himself after the war. "Andrew Higgins...is the man who won the war for us... If Higgins had not designed and built those LCPVs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." That's an absolutely awe-inspiring thought about the importance of Andrew Higgins and the improbable war machine that he built up during the two years following Pearl Harbor. Some have reported that Hitler called Higgins "the new Noah." Despite the devastating loss of life, it was a positive morale builder for the Allies and a realization for the Axis forces that their reign of terror over Europe would one day end. Higgins' success is the reason that the D-Day Museum was constructed in New Orleans ten years ago with great hoopla. Today, the more impressive campus has been renamed the National World War II Museum and I am proud to say it is located just off historic Lee Circle on Andrew Higgins Boulevard. Ironically, Higgins died two years before I was born, but it took several decades more for his impact on World War II to surface again. Higgins would probably shrug it off, saying something like it was his civic duty. Yet others will point to him and call him the "man who won the war for us." Just thought I'd send a little shout out to a great American and a great New Orleanian on this great American holiday of remembrance.

D-Day

Today is an auspicious day. With humility, I reference the 64th anniversary of the Allied Invasion that signalled the beginning of the end of the Axis forces in World War II. Notwithstanding a push from East by the Russians, the lives lost at places with names like Omaha and Utah paved the way for a beachhead that became a stanglehold on the European continent and allowed U.S. , British and French forces to battle their way into the heart of the Nazi war machine. We should all honor those brave souls who fought for liberty and who guaranteed our freedom with their very lives. The National World War II Museum opened here eight years ago as the then appropriately phrased D-Day Museum. In the intervening years, it was decided that there were other D-Days that were observed or could be observed. The focus on just June 6, 1944 was determined to be too specific. The Pacific campaign as well as battles waged on other significant dates could not be recalled easily if the focus was just on Normandy. The National World War II Museum is undergoing an expansion program now and will be increasing in size significantly in the coming years.
Happy Birthday, too, to my brother-in-law David Sobel, who lives in Sydney, Australia and who probably won't be able to read about this until tomorrow. When David moved back to Australia from a short stint here in New Orleans (he couldn't stomach the crime), my father remarked that I would probably be able to count the number of times I would see him again on both hands. So far, my dad has been right. David was here last year, but I've seen him fewer than five times in the 13 years that my wife Sally (his sister) passed away. I've seen my two nephews (Joshua and Trevor) and his wife Pamela even less.