D-Day Veteran Warren Goss, who's mother wrote to him in 1943 with Psalms 91

by Todd DePastino

D-Day Veteran Warren Goss yesterday told a group of us that he still carries a letter his mother wrote to him in 1943, when he was training in England for the Normandy invasion. In a letter home, he had expressed some fear about what lay ahead. His mother responded with calming words and the 91st Psalm, printed below.

In 1943, Warren volunteered for the 531st Engineer Shore Regiment, 1st Engineer Amphibian Brigade. Warren trained for much of the next year, and that included the ill-fated training exercise Operation Tiger, where 800 American soldiers lost their lives at Slapton Sands. The training was for D-Day, and Warren crossed the Channel the morning of June 6, headed for Utah Beach. The next few hours were intense: Warren saw terrible sights as he jumped off the landing craft. He made it to the beach and headed inland, in the direction of Ste-Marie-du-Mont. Warren did many patrols in Normandy before the battle ended in August. With the job of the 531st done, Warren was transferred to Company K, 274th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division, and they set across central France in the direction of Germany, crossing the Saar River and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge during the winter of 1944-45.  Warren’s war ended near Frankfurt; he eventually made his way home and found his way back into civilian life, marrying and raising his own family.

You can hear Warren sharing some of his story below:

I think anyone going into what Warren experienced would do well to keep the words of Psalms 91 below close.

Psalms 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The LORD is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
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