Skip to main content

Arlington




The group visited Arlington today. We had a tour guide who made it a point to walk us through the cemetery to graves that each offered stories about Normandy that we might not have otherwise known. Our trip there lasted about three hours, and I'm appreciative of how it gave me a much better sense of how large this cemetery is. Here are the graves we visited as part of the tour.

A black veteran of the Normandy Invasion. 

One of the first women ashore at Normandy. She eventually set up communications at the Potsdam Conference. 

Commander of some of the Airborne troops who served at Normandy. 

Eventually served as commanding general in Korean War. 



One of Eisenhower's architects for the invasion. 

Eisenhower's boss. 

One of America's Hispanic veterans of the Normandy campaign. 
He cut his normal tour short so as to permit stops at the graves of two grandfathers of our Normandy Institute students.

Lauren's grandfather. 

Zac's grandfather. 
Of course we went by some graves of other famous figures.

Famous boxer who took down Max Schmeling.

Supreme Court Justice

Civil Rights Movement Leader and Martyr
When I go to Arlington I'm usually interested in someone who was a towering hero for me when I was a kid, Audie Murphy. I didn't ask the guide to work in a visit to his grade. But I was embarrassed that I walked by the grave of this hero from my youth without recognizing it was there.

At the grave of a famous fighter pilot, one who flew my favorite plane from the war. 
The trip today meant a lot more. Of course the memory of soldiers like Bill are on the minds of students and teachers today. Some of us came with some other soldiers and sailors on our minds, too. After stumbling past Pappy Boyington's grave and almost missing it, I started to be more observant, looking for graves and markers that might have more relevance to members of the group.

I thought this might be Dylan's airman's group, but it wasn't (right Air Force, though). 
I'll close with two photos, one of the cemetery near the grave of Lauren's grandfather and another of the group as we posed near President Kennedy's grave.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Thoughts on Liberation

One of the markers placed by the French and Belgian governments to mark the path of the liberators.  My greatest takeaway from this most recent trip involves some refined feelings about liberation. I'm writing this post in a time of high cynicism. And the were matters of which one could be cynical back in 1944, the year in which Charlie fought and died. This trip, however, left me with renewed appreciation for what our country did back in that war, helping me refocus on what I've had the chance to see and do the past few years. Christopher is the military historian who accompanied us on this voyage. In one of our webinars this spring, he made an offhand reference to a piece of scholarship about the Holocaust he said was worth reading. It's entitled Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. It's heavy. I can't say I read every chapter. But I read most of it on our bus rides this summer. And I'm glad I did. My unassigned reading. Saying that Bloo...
1 comment
Read more

About that observant fella . . .

Alan and I atop a Sherman. I often compliment my daughter on being observant (and she is!). In some ways, I'm trying to call her attention to something I wish I were better at. That is, being observant. Alan has the gift Caroline does. Two interesting examples of it. While trying to find dinner one night in Paris, Alan caught a sign written in French that said something-something about the times of Christ. Turns out, it was a pathway to an ancient Roman arena where gladiator matches might have once taken place. I know. It looks like a park or courtyard. It really is a relic of the Roman era, though, right in a neighborhood in Paris. On our final night of the trip came another moment. Alan came across a pair of stumbling stones, which we weren't aware existed in Belgium. Stumbling stones are a form of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust. They are placed in locations where individuals have memory of those victims last being seen. These were relatively ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Historians on the Road

We're missing just two of the eight ABMC teachers in this photo. From left to right, Jason, Gena, Suzy, Jeannine, Leif, Kaat, and me.  Eight of us are participants in this program. We teach from around the country in a rather wide variety of settings. Each of us was tasked with the same assignment: to honor a fallen soldier or sailor by eulogizing him by his final resting place. Let me tell you a little more about the group. There are seven in the photo above, and six of the seven are teachers in the program. Kaat is not currently a teacher but instead a staff member of the ABMC who came with us on the trip. She was a wonderful addition on the trip, and not just for her language skills (which helped with directions and menu deciphering). In addition to becoming a friend of us, she also delivered a stirring eulogy for a G.I. of Belgian descent buried at Luxembourg. Alan and Amy are missing from the photo, though. Alan, who teaches in Indiana, has an amazing talent for getti...
Post a Comment
Read more