I did not go to Normandy a couple of weeks ago as I had planned. My wife, who had been there previously did go.

She said this visit was disappointing when compared to her previous visit a couple of years ago. The quiet reverence she felt previously was absent and replaced with hundreds of school children and workmen preparing for the 80th anniversary of the landing on June 6th (Thursday of this week).

I decided that I had made the right decision for me. I am glad that school children go there----they need to understand and remember and it would be unreasonable to expect their silent contemplation.

My wife was also very critical of the guide who seemed disinterested and gave more than a little bad information. One claim was that the French government maintains the cemetery with no cost to the US----which is a fantasy. All military cemeteries on foreign soil are maintained by the ABMC.

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) maintains the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The ABMC is a United States government agency that was established by Congress in 1923 to commemorate the service and sacrifice of U.S. armed forces overseas. The ABMC is responsible for 26 American cemeteries and 30 memorials, monuments, and markers in 17 countries. The Normandy American Cemetery is one of 14 permanent American World War II military cemeteries that the ABMC maintains on foreign soil.

The 172-acre cemetery contains the graves of 9,387 U.S. servicemembers, most of whom died on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
In addition there is a wall commemorating the 1557 missing.

Imagine the emotions of those soldiers headed for the beach where their brothers were being slaughtered.

May we all remember with humility and gratefulness those who gave all on those beaches.