Visiting the American Cemetery in Normandy is a solemn honor that I wish all Americans had the chance to do. It grabs you by the heart and it is one of those "quiet" places that makes you want to whisper out of respect. It sits on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and roughly 9,400 Americans are buried there. White marble headstones mark each one. There are over 1,500 names of the still missing carved on the walls and a small chapel sits in the middle. Three medal of honor winners rest here. Forty-five sets of brothers lie side by side. Two of the three brothers killed that inspired Saving Private Ryan lie here. The third brother died in the Pacific and the brother "Ryan" (not his real name) did get sent home.
What I see here, as a mother, is endless rows of dead sons. Sons who were barely men yet. Lives that were never finished and grandchildren that were never born. These sons went to fight in Europe by enlistment but mostly by draft. But it was a noble war that had to be fought, unlike some that came later and tore apart our country.
The Cemetery is immaculately maintained. The US Government does a lot to keep it manicured but so do volunteer community groups in Normandy and many, many vets who also volunteer. The people of Normandy still appreciate what we did for them and treat American visitors with respect and grace. Gotta say the closer you get to Paris that isn't always the case!
Our historian did something really cool. At the start of the tour he asked for our maiden names. I thought that a bit odd but OK. It seems many of the graves have never been visited by family from the US. It is not an easy trip and sadly they have never had anyone pay respects. He searched the cemetery records using current last names and maiden names to find graves with that name. He marked the location on post its so it could be found and passed out the info to us on the tour. Most of the people has someone to look up. There were no matches for Zingo or Tufts. My fellow tour members were able to locate all the gravesites and pay their respects. Awesome.
At the end of the day we visited Pegasus Bridge.
It crosses the Caen Canal. English gliders flew in 181 men and they had to hold the bridge until relieved by the British invasion forces. The object of this action was to prevent German tanks from crossing the bridge and attacking our forces at Sword Beach. This happened in the wee dark hours of June 6th before the beach landings. One of the glider men, Lt. Brotheridge, was mortally wounded while crossing the bridge and became the first member of the invading Allied Armies to be die of enemy fire on D-Day.
The bridge was captured after a fierce ten minute fight!
It was a rainy ride to Paris along the French countryside. Looking out the window it could have been the same view along upstate New York roads. But so much happened here. So many thousands of stories in those little farm houses and villages.
Got to our hotel after passing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc De Triumph a little after 4pm. Just spending the night here then tomorrow morning taking the fast train to Brussels. Lucky for me I have been here with Kristy before so I'm just going to find a bistro for dinner and catch up on this blog before I forget everything I saw.
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