JUNE 7, 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the 81st anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy by delivering a speech at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Commonly referred to as D-Day, the invasion — which would prove to be the turning point in the European theater and ultimately lead to the Allies’ victory on the Western Front — saw roughly 160,000 troops crossing the English Channel on June 6, 1944, with more than 2 million Allied troops in France just three months later.
“It is a sheer privilege to stand in this cemetery among heroes and before God, an incredible monument to the sacrifices American warriors made on the beaches of Normandy,” Hegseth said at the outset of his remarks, adding that the U.S. is very grateful to the French government for dedicating the cemetery’s land as a resting place for America’s fallen service members.
The secretary spent the early part of his speech recounting the harrowing Allied invasion, stating that “a more daring assault had never been planned.”
“The courage it took to do this is unfathomable,” he said, noting that the first groups to land on the beach — thousands of young men — lost their lives in a barrage of mortars and machine gun fire.
“But they never let up; our warriors never faltered,” Hegseth added.
“[With] God at their backs as they forced their way inland, [Hitler’s] Atlantic Wall began to crumble.”
Acknowledging the small group of surviving D-Day veterans attending the ceremony, Hegseth spoke of that generation’s fortitude.
“These men — boys, then — were part of those landing forces; they embody the warrior ethos,” he said, adding that theirs is a generation that developed grit during the Great Depression and that they were and are “hard men forged for hard times.”
Hegseth said he thinks people should ask themselves whether they would be able to muster the same courage as those who participated in the Allied invasion. And that an opportunity he had earlier in the day to participate in physical training with U.S. Army Rangers showed him that the country still produces such warriors.
“I got my answer to those questions with the sun rising, with the Ranger Regiment: yes, we do produce such men — still — from far-flung places, willing to traverse the globe to defend freedom,” he said.
He added that, while participating in PT with the Rangers on Omaha Beach — the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the invasion — the area looked more like an actual beach than a battlefield.
“That’s what those men fought for: that we may turn scenes of death into scenes of life; scenes of war into scenes of peace, glorifying Almighty God with our lives and living worthy of their sacrifice,” Hegseth said.
He also pointed out that, while some members of earlier generations went to war in the hopes that future generations wouldn’t have to, most fought wars knowing future generations would have to be willing to do the same because “history is not over,” and “evil has not been eradicated from the globe.”
“Good men are still needed to stand up; America will require such men,” Hegseth said, adding that the entire world requires such brave people to come forward.
The secretary said the U.S. and France share a bond brought about by the sacrifice of all those who fought — including those who lost their lives — during the D-Day invasion.
“Our moment today is an echo; it’s an echo of theirs,” Hegseth said.
“And may we live worthy of them.”
By Matthew Olay, DOD News