Homecoming
General Bradley last visited Moberly when the Omar N. Bradley Airport was named in his honor. At the original dedication of the Airport on July 5, 1943, Bradley could not attend because he was in World War II combat in North Africa.
He came here June 9, 1945, after the end of the war, for a giant homecoming celebration and “Bradley Day” program at Tannehill Park.
Bradley's Memorial Day Address
In a 1948 Memorial Day Address in Longmeadow, Massachusetts over the body of a soldier killed by enemy action east of the Siegfried Line, General Bradley spoke these words:
“It is easy for us who are living to honor the sacrifices of those who are dead. For it helps us to assuage the guilt we should feel in their presence. Wars can be prevented just as surely as they are provoked and therefore we who fail to prevent them must share in guilt for the dead. I have not come here today to commemorate war and its evils for the sacrifices war has produced.
For every man in whom war has inspired sacrifice, courage, and love, there are many more whom it has degraded with brutality, callousness and greed. We have come to ask why it is that our young men must spend their bodies against the Siegfried Line - why is it men cannot live as bravely as they die? Men become legends either by merit or circumstance. It may be impossible to separate the two.”
Omar Bradley is a product of both.