Remembering U.S. Soldiers on D-Day

On June 5, 1944, along with a couple dozen other Army cadets, we were traveling along the roads in southern England, having visited the tank barracks at Bovington to view the new Churchill tank.

Along the 20 miles or so of country roads, and as far as the eye could see, were GIs sitting, reclining, standing on both sides of the road, smoking, quietly pensive. Interspersed were their trucks waiting to take them to the ports for embarkation. It was a fine sunny day, and only now do I fully realize the debt that we owed those soldiers of the 1st Division.

Noel Pugh

Simi Valley

Re June 6, the D-day anniversary: During my senior year of college in the mid-1970s I was enrolled in the University of Caen in Normandy. Seeing that my two classmates and I were Americans, an older Frenchman approached us in a city square, earnestly shaking our hands and thanking us for liberating his country. We were three women in their early 20s -- and he felt compelled to thank us 30 years after D-day.

I wonder how many Americans have been warmly thanked for their country’s wartime efforts since then.

Mary MacGregor

La Quinta

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Immigrant License

Bill Needs Teeth

Re “License Bill Gets Early Brushoff,” June 2: Against all common sense and the clear wishes of a majority of Californians, state Democratic lawmakers seem determined to pass a bill making illegal immigrants eligible to obtain driver’s licenses. The pretext is public safety. If everyone is licensed and insured, the party line goes, we’re all better off.

Then how about putting some teeth in the new law? Any illegal immigrant found to be driving without a valid driver’s license, valid registration or proof of insurance would be taken into custody, turned over to the Border Patrol and summarily deported. Reentering the United States would be a felony punishable by imprisonment. No exceptions.

If Democrats are as interested in our safety as they are about appealing to an illicit constituency, here’s their chance to prove it.

Doug Bell

San Diego

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Alliterative Pick-Up

Re “Poetry of Popular Patter,” May 31: Your amusing article on alliteration cleverly conveyed a delightful dose of entertaining education.

Judith B. Herman

Rancho Palos Verdes