William Sloane Coffin, Jr., was, for several years, the pastor at Riverside Church in New York City. In his autobiography, he told of going back to France and visiting some of the places where he had been in World War II. One of those places was the town of Sainte-Mère-Eglise. The 82nd Airborn Division had dropped into that town.

While there for his visit, the mayor showed William around. They went inside the village church. The mayor pointed to a beautiful stained-glass window that depicted the 82nd Division parachuting into the town. On the window above the paratroopers, was the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child. The mayor said, “We designed the window like this so we might never forget that night.”1

When I read that, I remembered seeing that scene in the movie, The Longest Day. I reme…