Just booked a train ticket to Paris, now looking at how to get from Paris to Omaha and Utah beaches. Seeing the sight of the D-Day landing has been a dream ten years in the making, as that is when I was siting in Mrs. Fairlamb's American history class listening to veterans recalling their personal stories of that incredible day. With few living D-Day veterans, I would like to see the sight prior to my return to the United States for the summer, as I know of 5 individuals who were there on a partially cloudy 6 June 1944, one of whom went on to be part of the first divisions to liberate Austwitz, though I can remember him saying that when he first saw the camp he wasn't real sure who or what these people were, as at that time the Allied forces didn't really understand that Hitler had created death camps for the Jews. I mentioned 5 individuals I know who fought on Omaha beach, one of whom was there as a German in what is called a 'pill box', though his take on the Jews seems to be identical to the Iranian or Palistinian rhetoric, but is important to remember the Jews of the 1940s are not the Israelies of today. Ironically, the Isrealies of today resemble more or less the Germans of the 1940s, at least in there treatment of the minority groups in Israel and having a tendency to bomb or invade neighboring states once and a while. A lot has changed in the world since World War II and that war definately defined what one American author calls the 'Greatest Generation.' In some ways I would have to agree, as the men and women in both Europe and American endured far more than I would like to contemplate. A visit to Omaha beach is a capstone for me personally, because the person for whom I was named was killed in the skies above that beach. My post exam trip to Paris to see the French Open, visit one of my best friends, and then to travel west to the sight of D-Day is very exciting to say the least.
