Welcome to JFK and The Enduring Secret. I'm your host, Jeff Crudell.

Somewhere between the murkyy waters of diplomacy and the brute force required to battle real evil is where the world hangs most of the time.

And that is a very precarious balance.

I've been absent much of the last three weeks, mostly the time spent

visiting France. I went with my adult son, Austin, and my brother Dennis, on one of those

trips of a lifetime. Our primary reason was to visit the Normandy region and pay homage on this 80th anniversary year to the men and the women

who gave their lives invading those beaches in Normandy, and then spending the next three months

or so fighting the battle in that region, the Battle of Normandy. They were paving the way for the

liberation of France, and eventually all of

Western Europe that was under Nazi control. For us, the trip was a special moment of homage to the

American men who fell there defending democracy and freedom. Americans in America paid a terrible price there, as did other countries,

including Britain, France, and Canada and Australia. But America led the way, showing the world

what it's like when you put the needs of others ahead of your own. And of course, what it's like

when a person sacrifices their own life

for the life of another. And in this case, for a nation of people that practically none of those

soldiers had even met. The overused adage that freedom is not free, well, it's never more apparent than when you visit the

American cemetery that perches above Omaha Beach, where some 9,400 of our servicemen lie in state,

in one of the most beautiful and touching settings ever conceived for a final resting place.

The honor, respect, and gratefulness that I felt at the American Cemetery repeated itself.

On a visit to where the British men and women are buried.

In the War Cemetery, located in a nearby town named by you.

All in the context of the sobering reality of what war

...