January winter in France. A cold, foggy and wet. It was just such a day when we went to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. I thought we could walk through the cemetery and read some of the gravestones, tipping his hat, and then drink a good red wine. The fact that I was not ready for a memorial. It's great in its simplicity. As we walked through the memorial, I was overcome with the stories of people who saved the world in 1944. They were so young. They fear mixed with excitement about what they're going to do. It was powerful to read the words of General Eisenhower, as he met the last time with his troops before the invasion. We spent three hours, and I thought we were gone about 30 minutes. Movies and stories of people who were heroes quite simply, stunning. They say that when you die young you are forever frozen in time at this age. Of course, this is true, as you learn about the life of the people who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy. It was a very emotional experience. Nine thousand Americans are buried here. Reading the headstones is like reading the phone book of America. With a set of men and boys died here in order to free France and the world from the dark forces can imagine.
After reading a few tombstones, I would like to go down to the beach. This is an easy walk down, and all this time you go you imagine what American soldiers think they are trying to get under heavy fire. Omaha Beach is a small but beautiful beach. This is a deep sandy beach at low tide, bookended steep hills on each end. Can you imagine the French people here in the summer, as I walked on the beach in the sun and fun. But your mind flashes to the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, and you go in the water just thinking of that generation of young American soldiers, trying to hit the beach and fight their way. I took a small stone from the English Channel coast. Silly, but somehow I felt that connected me with the men, and my dad.
One of the major failures of U.S. foreign policy is that cigar smokers can not buy Cuban cigars. Well, in France you can. So I bought it, and I kept it at this point. I climbed up on the beach, and I was sitting on top of concrete German pillbox, which no doubt was home to the gun that killed a lot of Americans landing on the beach.
I smoked a cigar, that, and I thought about what happened here. They say that men get older, they become more emotional. If you doubt that go to Omaha Beach.
