I totally agree with you guys! Real heroism was happening LONG before D-day and LONG after. The obsession with D Day in Normandy to the exclusion of all other D-days makes me angry. 
Maybe people think it's more glamorous to have been a paratrooper or a fighter pilot, but sacrifice is sacrifice and dead is dead.
"Our" VI Corps guys fought and died too.
As Erwin said:"What about glidermen, engineers, ordnance, truck companies..."
Were THEIR sacrifices any less????
Just take for example 6 Corps' 52nd Medical Battalion. These men lost their lives in the Italian Campaign and are buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. They too had people who loved them, people who mourned for them.
They never came home. Was their sacrifice any less?
PVT Albert I Osbow from MA died 10/17/43
PFC Glen H Roney from KY died 11/13/43
PVT John J. Zumbo from MD died 11/13/43
PFC Lewis H. Mullaney from MA died 11/13/1943
PVT John P Finnega, from NY died 1/11/1944
SSGT John M. Harcola from NY died 1/30/44
Pvt Aime Gendron from NH died 2/8/44
or how about our VI Corps MPs - my Dad's 206th MP Co and "A" Company, 504th Military Police Battalion. These men fought & died at on the Anzio Beachhead and now rest in Italy:
504th MP BN:
PFC Howell H Barnes from GA died 1/22/1944
PVT Edward Leto from NY died 1/26/1944
PFC James H Lease from OH died 2/23/1944
PVT Lloyd A Quick from MI died 3/5/1944
PVT Ralph S. Smith from OH died 3/25/1944
or how about our guys in the 57th Signal Battalion?
1LT John J Heitzenrater from PA died 9/17/1943
PFC Ivan O. Bustad from ND died 2/4/1944
PFC William R. Clark from VA died 2/29/1944
PVT John Makely from NJ died 2/29/1944
PFC Walter F. Reinhardt from PA died 3/9/1944
People should look at these names and realize that these brave men never had another birthday, another Christmas, Easter, or Hannukah, another family barbecue, or reunion. Their loved ones could never see them again.
These fellows all lost their lives far away from home & far away from home their bodies lie to this day.
My father noted the death of one of his friends in his diary:
"Vincent Rogers KIA". He was SSgt Vincent J. Rogers Jr, 38th Bomber Squadron & died 1/21/1944, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with oakleaf cluster, and Purple Heart. His name is on the Tablets Of The Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
Many battlefields, many heroes - in AAA brigades, QM gas supply battalions, Signal Co, Engineers, Tank Destroyer BN etc etc. The war was NOT fought JUST on the Normandy Beaches, but it WAS won by men doing their best with whatever they were given to do & wherever they were sent.
m2