Saturday, May 14, 2011

Normandy

Shannon and I, along with two crew mates from the ship, rented a small car at the Le Havre port of call and made a two hour drive into Normandy, me at the wheel. They drive on the right, American side of the road and side of the car. The drive was scenic, especially in the area leading up to the beaches, lush with small farming operations.

I thought long and hard about a single word that could be drawn upon the summarize the tremendous feelings and contemplation that overcome oneself standing at the memorial graveyard and above the battle beaches; I could not find a word that gave voice to those unspoken volumes. I am incapable of describing the emotions, the gravity, the sights, the silence that seems so loud in a place such as this, all of this coming together with the weight of what has happened along those beaches, what the heroic actions led to, and what might have happened had the allied forces not won.

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