Mr. Johnson in Normandy

The chapel interior at Luxembourg American Cemetery. Most of us on the trip completed research for soldiers buried at Luxembourg American Cemetery. It's situated right outside of Luxembourg City and it receives a good number of visitors every year. The fact that General George Patton is buried there has something to do with their high visitorship. In fact, the initial attempt to bury him along with the soldiers failed when the foot traffic to his grave wore out the grass. Patton's grave now sits by itself near the top of the hill at the cemetery, near the chapel and tablets of the missing. Suzy's soldier. Six of us delivered eulogies that day: five teachers and Kaat. When I had the chance to listen to students' eulogies back in 2017, I was struck by how something of each student's character worked itself into the story they told. I still get a bit of a sense of that with eulogies delivered by teachers. However, the element that works itself more powerfull...

There were eight teachers on our 2019 Understanding Sacrifice trip. Each of us had the honor of eulogizing one soldier or sailor who lost their lives during the war. A statue at the top of the East Coast Memorial The first two of us to do so were Leif and Gena. They each did so in April for sailors memorialized at the East Coast Memorial. Many of us have walked near or even by this memorial without realizing it. It's located in Battery Park. I wasn't able to capture the specific names of Leif's and Gena's sailors from the tablets. These are two of the enormous tablets of those lost in the Battle for the Atlantic.  With each eulogy I'm surprised at the way in which the fallen hero's story is unique and interesting. Leif memorialized a sailor lost at sea in what was first called an accident, then changed to killed in action decades later. Turns out U-Boats were operating off the Maine coast as late as May 1945. Gena somehow came across another ...

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 ...

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...

A memorial erected by Union war veterans at Arlington. When I first had the opportunity to do research and travel regarding World War II, I trusted that in some way the experience would work its way into my classroom. I was teaching economics only at the time, so how my historical odyssey would imprint my teaching seemed a little fuzzy. I had the privilege to travel overseas and do research again in 2018, that time for both the Korean War and World War II. And now I'm going for a third year in a row. The imprint of these experiences is becoming clearer. When preparing to teach a lesson on the Civil War era, a reference in the textbook caught my eye. It summarized how changes in embalming technology and the culture of grieving influenced Americans' responses to the massive death toll of that conflict. The reference gave me a chance to have some very meaningful conversations about loss and grief with my students. It also allowed me to share with them ways in which Arling...