Memorial Day

It is, in a way an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country....in wars far away.  The imagination plays a trick.  We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise.  We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired.  But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives - the one they were living and one they would have lived... 

- Ronald Reagan  

Originally called Decoration Day - Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of our country.  

 

There is an American Cemetery and Memorial located in Colleville-sur-Mer on the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.  Dedicated in 1956 the Cemetery and Memorial is situated closely to the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 - the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. 

 

This is the final resting place of 9,387 of our military dead - most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations.  If you were to visit this place you will note that upon the walls of the Garden of the Missing are inscribed an additional 1,557 names.  And because old battlefields continue to yield their dead - rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. 

 

 

 

 

 

An officer in my father’s unit in Normandy was mortally wounded by a German 88mm shell at the bloody Crossroads 114 near Acqueville and Le Motel in the drive to envelope the critical port city of Cherbourg.  He died a few days later.  

In Plot E Row 26 Grave 37 rests James D. Johnston. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 47th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division.