You went as a young man,
To a place you didn't know,
To serve your country at war,
So very long ago.

Death and strife abounded,
It was everywhere in sight,
But that did not stop you,
As you fought that gallant fight.

You were an important part,
On Normandy beach that day,
You never gave a thought,
To what part you were to play.

And now the years have passed,
Leaving scars and memories,
Of a war so long ago,
Surrounded by tragedies.

Your bravery and your honor,
We salute this day,
Bud Reel you are our hero,
In each and every way.

�Bev Bishop

On May 27, 2002 (Memorial Day) Bud Reel was one of six Alaska Veterans to receive the Normandy Medal of the Jubilee of Liberty, an honor for veterans who served there between June 6 and Aug. 31, 1944.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens presented the medal to Leonard "Bud" Reel of Homer.
Stevens praised the veterans, shaking hands and returning salutes as he passed out certificates and medals. He discussed ties between Normandy and
Sept. 11 -- both decisive moments, he said, amid long battles surrounding the threats against American freedoms.
"This is a remembrance," Cook said, "of what went on over there." The Normandy invasion had Allied forces overtaking the Western European coastline in a cross-channel assault that required getting ashore and busting through the Atlantic Wall -- about 2,400 miles of concrete bunkers, barbed wire, tank ditches and land mines. After the beaches were secured, it took almost a year to reach and defeat Germany in spring 1945. The six men honored at Monday's ceremony sat in a straight-backed line in the front row, sometimes shutting their eyes or gazing thoughtfully ahead.
"This is the day we all huddle up a little bit and think of the people we left behind," said Stevens, a World War II veteran and a Post 1 member. "It
is important for us all to remember not just what World War II meant to us, the survivors, but to generations to come."