France - not all bad

Hey all, Lex and family just rolled in from our travels to France and Berlin. Here are the highlights.

It has been said that when the French government ordered all America forces from France the American ambassador replied, we assume the ones in your cemeteries can stay.

Jun 2 Verdun, France
We saw 19,000 perfectly aligned US servicemen. Verdun is the largest American cemetery in Europe. The cemetery honors US servicemen killed in the area during WWI. It is an awesome humbling sight. The first names are odd here. Among the common Johns, Williams, and James are the uncommon Josiah, Ollie, Zachariah, Wendell, Ralph, Luther but I didn’t a single Sean, Devin or Connor.

Jun 3 Belleau, France
We saw 2,289 perfectly aligned US servicemen. The American cemetery at Belleau Wood, France is a Mecca for Marines. Belleau Wood is the battle where the Germans named their Marine foes “Teufelshunde” or devil dogs – a nickname to which all Marines and former Marines will still proudly answer to this day.

Jun 5 Sword, Juno and Gold Beaches
We had lunch at Sword Beach were the Canadians came ashore on D-Day. Not much at all left to remind one of the heroics that took place there on that day. There is a large marker at one of the beach’s many entry points. There are also a couple of brass markers along the concrete walkway that separates the beach from the junk shops and restaurants.

As we traveled up the road past Juno toward Gold, were the British landed, we found a site that paid tribute the manmade ports the allies constructed to support the Allied invasion of Europe. The Arromanches area looked like any college beach town during spring break. It was an endless line of tourist shops hawking t-shirts, post cards and other memorabilia, ice cream wagons and restaurants.

June 6 Omaha Beach
We arrived at the American cemetery shortly after it opened – over 9,000 perfectly aligned US servicemen. Finally, I thought a place along this prime French beach area with the dignity and solitude that the events Jun 6, 1944 deserve. There was a brief ceremony preformed by a group of old-timers. A digital version of the Star Spangled Banner played over a loud – but not too loud – speaker and was followed by a beautiful version Taps. The old timers laid a wreath at the foot of the bronze statue that dominates the cemetery’s entry. The ladies and many of the men in the group wept. That same ceremony would be repeated about five times during our one hour visit.

We moved on to Pont Du Hoc. This is the point on Utah Beach were Capt Rudder led a band of 225 Army Rangers up steep cliffs to take out a battery of German guns. As you look at the tactical advantage that the Germans had, it’s a miracle that only 2/3ds of Rudder’s company were killed that day.

We drove on to St. Mere Eglise. This is the town made famous by the movie The Longest Day were a soldier gets his parachute hung up on the town’s church steeple and survives the day by playing dead. For some odd reason the town fathers have found it necessary to dress up a manikin and hang it from the steeple. St. Mere Eglise has the same charm as the commercialized beach towns.

We saw a dozen or more beautiful churches, toured 5-6 amazing ruins, stayed in a couple of beautiful little towns, drank beer with World Cup soccer fans, but for me these were the highlights. Like Gettysburg, walking the grounds where so many Americans lay, their lives and deeds too quickly fading from our national memory, was an awakening. Standing among the 6,000 American servicemen who lost their lives on Jun 6, 1944, standing on the exact ground where they many have met their end put our current struggle with world-wide Islamo-terror-fascists into perspective and gave me a new understanding of what “sacrifice” really means. Tomorrow the disappointments of the trip.