Norwood Teague directs a trio of annual events in North Carolina, including the state’s largest manufacturing sector convention, mfgCON. With a longstanding concern in the importance of history, Norwood Teague is particularly interested in World War II.

The 75th anniversary of D-Day was recently commemorated in many countries around the world. The storming of Normandy’s beaches, which hastened an end to the conflict, was commanded by General Dwight Eisenhower, who visited the Airborne Infantry in England the night before D-Day and spoke of the meaningfulness of the men’s mission and sacrifice. He had been advised that a casualty rate of 80 percent was likely for those involved in 101st Airborne paratrooper beach drops.

With an overriding concern for the safety of all participants, Eisenhower had doubled the initial assault capacity to 2.8 million men and 7,000 ships. Major variables included German reinforcement rates and the weather during the landing.

On one of the few occasions Eisenhower talked about D-Day, he recalled “hoping and praying” for good weather but instead confronted the worst possible weather report. Fortunately, there was a brief break in the storms of June 6th, and Eisenhower made a snap decision to go. That proved to be the right decision – the Germans were unprepared because they assumed the bad weather would prevent a landing.