Normandy American Cemetery

We visited the Normandy American Cemetery, located above Omaha Beach.

Near the entrance to the cemetery was a carillon. One of the songs it played was "My Country Tis of Thee," and I sang along in my head as one is apt to do when hearing a familiar melody. I must admit that some tears welled up when I got to the line, "Land where my fathers died/Land of the pilgrims' pride" -- the cemetery was full of men who died not in the land of the pilgrims' pride, but on a foreign battlefield.

Years later, I read a Ronald Reagan Veterans Day address. Although given at Arlington National Cemetery and I was unaware of them at the time, his words perfectly sum up the feeling:

It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.

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The cemetery is very large, and landscape is crowned somewhat so one cannot easily see from one end to the other. As we progressed through the cemetery, we saw a chapel at what appeared to be the far end of the cemetery. When we reached the chapel we saw that it was not at the far end, but rather near the center, of the cemetery.

Aerial view.