Memorial Day: Much To Remember. So We Remember.
Rows of white crosses of fallen american soldiers at American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach Cimetiere ... More Americain, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France
COLEVILLE-SUR-MER, NORMANDY, FRANCE – We walked through the imposing entrance, the middle of the semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end. There we stood, at the foot of a 22-foot bronze statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves by Donald De Luc.
Over the arches of the Memorial is engraved "THIS EMBATTLED SHORE, PORTAL OF FREEDOM, IS FOREVER HALLOWED BY THE IDEALS, THE VALOR AND THE SACRIFICES OF OUR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN".
At the feet of the Memorial is engraved both in English and French "IN PROUD REMEMBRANCE OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER SONS AND IN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THEIR SACRIFICES THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA".
Thus began our visit – my wife, my 12-year-old son, and me – on the 50th anniversary of D-Day to the most somber place I've ever seen on this earth: The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial (French: Cimetière américain de Colleville-sur-Mer). The cemetery spreads out over 172.5 acres (roughly a quarter of a square mile) of strikingly beautiful land on a bluff overlooking the English Channel. On the day of our visit 31 years ago, the grass and shrubs were soft and lush, the sky was a vivid, cloudless blue, and the waters of the Channel – choppy, cold, and blood-filled on that fateful day 1944 – were soft, rhythmic, and calming on our day in 1994. There was a soft, sweet breeze coming off the Channel that whispered through the maples, pines, oaks, and sycamores as it caressed our bodies and souls, transporting the aromas of the flowering roses and heather to and about us.
We remember.
To honor this sacred day and to remember those who made it so, it couldn't have been a more perfect setting. Perched atop the cliffs of Omaha Beach, the cemetery holds 9,388 graves of American military personnel, with their white marble headstones seternally at attention.
We remember.
The cemetery also contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of which are buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, 4 women, 147 African Americans and 20 Native Americans. Further, 304 unknown soldiers are buried among the other service members. Their headstones read "HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY A COMRADE IN ARMS KNOWN BUT TO GOD".
We remember.
We spent an entire afternoon walking the grounds in total silence, along with many hundreds of the one million annual visitors. Words were not just insufficient. They were impossible and unnecessary.
A time capsule is buried at the cemetery, to be opened on June 6, 2044, so that our progeny will continue to remember.
And so we remember.
We remember the thousands buried at Normandy and at American cemeteries all over the world. We remember those at rest in Arlington, Virginia. We remember the many. We remember the individuals. We remember my mother's younger brother Lewis, whose posthumously awarded Purple Heart I've proudly and emotionally passed along to my son. We remember my high school friend John. We remember the 58,000 who died in Vietnam. We remember those who died in Korea, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.
We remember.
I wish you a deeply thoughtful Memorial Day.
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