Valor, Fidelity, Sacrifice

Valor, Fidelity, Sacrifice. . The National D-Day Memorial exists to honor the Valor, Fidelity, and Sacrifice of the Allied Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the qualities giving this allegorical sculpture its name. The soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen, and merchant seamen it represents did nothing more than what they took to be their duty. They kept faith with the Alliance, their homelands, the chain of command, the mission, their units, and their fellows. It cost them comfort, safety, innocence, youth, blood - even life itself. , , Valor, Fidelity, Sacrifice, gives homage not only to those who died on D-Day but also to those who lived to secure the beachhead and carry freedom inland, and to those who transported the ground forces by air and sea, delivered their aerial and naval support, and provided their combat and combat-support services. D-Day's success owes an incalculable debt to its participants. That you yourself are free and here today is but a portion of their rich and enduring legacy. , Treasure it. , , In memory of staff Sgt. Isai Nygaard, 714th Tank Destroyer Battalion, and Bernice Thomas Nygaard. Given by their family on Memorial Day, 1999.