82 years later, Pointe du Hoc still teaches a hard American lesson: plans matter only until war wrecks them.

Mike Tyson had it right; all plans go out the window when you're punched in the face.

Courage shows itself when the map is wrong, the guns are missing, the commander is wounded, and the enemy still holds the ground. On D-Day, Rudder's Rangers didn't stop at the cliff; they went looking for the guns, found and destroyed them, and held the road.

“Rangers lead the way” wasn't a slogan in the morning; it was a record of what they had already done. Thank God for such men.