Europe 2012 - Part 3 D-Day

Wednesday of our trip was June 6, 2012 - the 68th Anniversary of D-day, when the Allied Forces came ashore in France.
We began our morning headed to Omaha Beach, where we would have John's (my brother in law) promotion/pinning ceremony.  I can't begin to describe to you the beauty of the place, but also how humbling and overwhelming it is to stand in a place where thousands of men died for your freedom.

Omaha Beach - June 6, 2012

The promotion ceremony was wonderful.  My dad officiated, swearing John in, and most of the family participated.  John and Anji's oldest son, read the promotion orders, while their youngest son held the American flag.  Anji and "Sweetie Pie" did part of the pinning and John's parents did the rest.

When the pinning was over, we were able to get some family pictures as well.

Group picture

The boys collected jars of sand from Omaha Beach and walked down the beach a little bit.  These are some of my favorite shots.

After we finished on the beach, we headed up to the American Military Cemetery at Colleville.  Anji and John had been in touch with the supervisor there, and we had reserved seats at the wreath laying ceremony for the commemoration of D-Day.  While the ceremony itself was not particularly spectacular, the experience was amazing.  There was a fly-over of C-130 aircraft that brought us all to tears and recognition of the WW2 veterans that were in attendance.  The flyover was meaningful to all of us, as this is the same aircraft my dad, my father-in-law, and my brother-in-law, have all flown.

Our seats for the wreath laying

C-130 Flyover

We had some time after the wreath laying, to walk through the cemetery. Most of the men buried here were young men (late teens and early 20s) and had never seen combat before.  They really didn't know what they were getting into.  My dad, who is a history buff and had done a lot of reading to prepare for this trip, told us the youngest man to die at Normandy was 15 years old.  He had lied about his age in order to serve.  Wow!  This was a fairly emotional time for all of us.  G was particularly emotional, as I think the gravity of what happened here really hit him.

We had been invited back to the cemetery for the flag retreat ceremony at 5:15.  My dad and brother-in-law had been invited to participate in this and joined the World War II veterans that were there in folding the flag. Two of the attendees stood out to us - sisters (92 and 95 years old) that served at nurses in France immediately following D-Day.  They had gone back that morning and found where they were stationed.  What a precious time for them (and us)!

Sweet ladies - WW2 vets who were stationed in France at D-day

As people left the cemetery and closing time drew near, Anji and John had arranged with the supervisor to be able to fly their own flag at Normandy.  We had our own flag ceremony at this time.  John raised and lowered the flag over the cemetery.  As the flag came down, all of the kids had the opportunity to help fold this flag (we had a little help from some active duty guys that were there).  It was also at this time that we were able to get some photos of the cemetery.  They, however, cannot capture the scope or magnitude of this place.  It is so humbling to see all of those graves (almost 10,000) and to know that these represent just a portion of those who were killed in France defending our freedom.

Raising the Flag

My favorite picture from the cemetery - taken by G!