The sky was cloudy and overcast over suburban New York on the morning of June 6th, 2024. On any other day, it would've just been another typical dreary, slightly wet Thursday afternoon. One full of hustle, bustle, and one-track minds just trying to get through the day. But on this day, the impending storms would have to wait their turn. Because this day coincided with the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
No act of nature could've prevented a select few of the sole-surviving local veterans of the Normandy landings, their friends, family, local consulates from Britain and France, and their many admirers from gathering to celebrate 80 years since that fateful day. As profoundly upsetting as it is to ponder, this may very well be the last time these people are able to make the trip to commemorate the event.
The venue for this historic day is a place quite unique among the dozens of different armored vehicle exhibitions in North America, the Museum of American Armor. Based just an hour's drive from Mid-town Manhattan in the cozy Long Island hamlet of Old Bethpage, the MoAA opened its doors ten years ago to the day, on the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
Since then, the museum's dedicated team of full-time staff and loyal volunteers have spent countless thousands of hours restoring retired American armored vehicles to operational condition. From there, the team displays these genuine pieces of American history on the venue's ample exhibit floor, where vehicles of all shapes and sizes can be moved around as needed, including for setting up chairs and podiums necessary to make a celebration as important as this one feel every bit as special as it is.
From armored cars to half-tracks, ambulances, staff cars, and tanks of all shapes and sizes, all of it, plus a liberal dose of wartime trinkets and accessories that immerse guests in the world as it was back in the 1940s is on display year-round. autoevolution was privileged and honored to be welcomed to that morning's ceremony in front of a packed house with hundreds of guests.
Photo: Benny Kirk/autoevolution
The PR muscle behind this world-class armor museum and the man who allowed us an unparalleled view atop a mobile step ladder was a gentleman named Kevin Carroll. Along with the rest of the MoAA's Board of Trustees, a day-long logistics affair was needed to arrange the dozens of vehicles inside the museum's main building in anticipation of perhaps the most important single day in the history of the complex.
While hundreds sat in seats in front of the podium, other, more adventurous museum staff members climbed atop a few armored vehicles parked behind the crowd, themselves dressed in period-correct D-Day garb. I was lucky to have an absolute banger spot overlooking the crowd from a step ladder beside a Cold War-era M48 Patton main battle tank.
Though its enormous main cannon nearly blocked my camera's already limited line of sight, some slightly precarious leaning over the edge netted me all the photos I could ever ask for. With the gravity of the moment weighing heavy on me, I couldn't help but go the extra mile to try and get the job done.
A genuine war-vintage M4 Sherman medium tank and Canadian Sexton self-propelled artillery vehicle flanked the podium from behind as board trustees, members of the Nassau County legislature, and members of the local British and French consulates gave speeches detailing why the last Normandy survivors truly are cherished treasures.
Photo: Benny Kirk/autoevolution
Complete with a multi-piece band made up of local Coast Guard members on the right-hand side and an equally substantial pipe and drum band on the left, every second that passed during the roughly hour-and-a-half-long ceremony felt pointed, poignant, and like every soul in the room was listening intently to the words being spoken.
A ring of a bell for each of the five beaches involved in Operation Overlord, Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword, coupled with the playing of not one but three national anthems to honor all in attendance, made the 80th anniversary of D-Day perhaps its most important milestone since 1944. All for the simple reason that after 2024, it's anyone's guess how many genuine Normandy veterans will still be around come this time next year, or the years that follow, for that matter.
With this in mind, the entire ceremony, veterans and tanks, and all, was nothing short of a profound microcosm of a larger history that begs to be celebrated and remembered, lest we forget them. Knowing that time was limited to show our appreciation in person, the post-ceremony march to the parking lot where a genuine D-Day landing craft was parked for a wreath laying brought more misty eyes than anything from Hollywood at the moment.
If you were lucky, as I was, then you might've even gotten to shake the hand of one of the genuine D-Day veterans to thank them for helping shape the modern world of Western democracy in their own way. Though our cultures, practices, and ways of life may be alien to each other, both sides of the aisle that day, both young and old, were united under one common belief.
Photo: Benny Kirk/autoevolution
Of course, it's that the sacrifices of not just so many Americans but also French, British, Canadians, Australians, Polish, Czechoslovaks, and soldiers of more than a dozen Native American tribes will never, ever fade from history. As the living memory of not only D-Day but the entirety of the Second World War inevitably slips away, it'll be our job, and ours alone, to ensure the story of D-Day lives on. With that, we leave you with one final quote on this day. "Through the gates of Hell, as we make our way to Heaven through the Nazi lines - Primo Victoria!" If you know, you know.
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