Normandy - Day 5, Part 2

For the second time in my life I had the privilege of standing on the shore of the English Channel on the beaches where the Allied forces fought on D-Day all those years ago. Those gray churning waters and rolling thunderheads added an air of the theatric and the tragic.


Normandy Beach looking towards the cliffs around which Utah Beach lies.
This memorial was built in honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day and stands almost as bits of exploded shrapnel.
The American Cemetery at Normandy possesses a quiet grace and humbling sentimentality. Standing among those rows of fallen soldiers, you wonder how those men managed to go into battle at all. More than the overwhelming sadness, there is an overwhelming gratitude to live in such comfort.

I walked this quiet path alone and felt a melancholy settle in that accompanies losses so great there are not words to define them.