Posted by Daniel Fitch on June 6, 2019:

Major James Edward McGinity gave his life for our freedoms in Normandy, France on D-Day -- exactly 75 years ago today. His remains lie in a distant grave -- beneath a white cross in the Normandy American Cemetery above Omaha Beach. Upon his shoulders and those of his comrades that day rested the survival of self-government. It is well that we know something about him on this somber anniversary. James was born in Detroit, the first of three children of Frances and Jenny McGinity. James was raised in a closely knit family and educated in Catholic schools. In 1936 James earned a senatorial appointment to West Point where he became a champion boxer. He graduated from the Academy in 1940 and was commissioned as an infantry officer. James joined the Army's first parachute infantry regiment ("PIR") in 1942 -- one of the original officers of the 505th PIR under the command of Colonel James M. Gavin. Following training in North Africa, James commanded Company G during the invasion of Sicily. His lightly armed company faced bitter fighting against the mechanized Hermann Goring Panzer Division. The men he led in battle held James in high regard. One later testified that James always exemplified the term "Officer and a Gentleman." Another of his soldiers recalled, "We would follow him to hell and back." Yet another wrote after the war, "He is still a part of my life, a man to model after. You tried a little harder after knowing him." After the Sicily Campaign was won, James became the executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 505th PIR, which parachuted into Italy at Salerno. James and his men fought hard to secure a foothold in Italy and liberate Naples. The 505th PIR and the rest of the 82nd Airborne Division were then pulled back to England to prepare for the invasion of Nazi-occupied France. As executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 505th PIR, James jumped behind Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, with the objective of taking and holding the LaFiere Bridge. It was one of the few crossings over the flooded Merderet River situated behind the landing beaches. Holding the bridge was crucial to the American effort to move landing forces inland and prevent a German counter-attack. Both James, and his battalion commander, Major Frederick Kellam, were killed on D-Day while leading the attack to capture the heavily defended LaFiere Bridge. In fierce fighting lasting several days -- the men of the 505th PIR, like Horatius of old, kept the bridge. James was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his valor on D-Day. The Catholic chaplain of the 505th PIR, Matthew Connelly, wrote the following to James' parents after the war: "I knew James for more than two years, lived in the same tent, slept and ate with him. As a priest I could never ask for a better companion. He is loved not only by me, but also by his men. I jumped from James' plane often. Always immediately after him. Now it is all over. But my fondest recollection of James was he and his battalion commander, Major Kellam, serving the last mass before taking off for France. James saved my life that night. I was injured on the jump. He dragged me to safety. A few hours later he was dead. I know you both are heart broken by your loss. You will always be." James loved his family and they him. On his last visit home he put his arm around his mother and said, "I'll consider marriage after the war, after we take Berlin." His father often read James' last letter of June 4, 1944, which ended, "I have played cribbage with the best players in the Airborne and parts of England, but you're the best, so long champ." His brother, George, a veteran of WWII, so loved James that he asked that his ashes be spread over James' grave upon his own death. The final word about James' brave life goes to General Eisenhower who in 1964 visited the graves of the 9,387 soldiers commemorated in perpetuity in Normandy. Sitting on the perimeter wall of the Normandy American Cemetery twenty years after the invasion, he contemplated these thousands of lost futures. "These young boys were cut off in their prime. They never knew the great experiences of going through life. But these men gave us a chance and bought us time, so we can do better and find some way to gain an eternal peace for this world."

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