With Mike's new job with Saint-Gobain, he gets to travel to Paris! He went twice in 2006, once getting to go to Normandy and got to see the American World War II cemetery (i.e. Saving Private Ryan). On the second trip, he got to go to EuroDisney!!
The WWII cemetery is amazing, and is a must-see for any American who goes over to France. You can see from the pictures below how special this place is, how much it should remind us of the unbelievable sacrifice America made for Europe to be free. So many of our country's sons from every walk of life are buried in this place. The caretakers keep it spotlessly groomed. While walking through the grave markers, I was struck by how diverse and how massive it is. It has 9,387 graves -- from every single state, and from all ranks (General through Private). Wikipedia lists the United States as having lost 407,300 military personnel (292,131 in battle) in WWII, which is actually more military deaths then the UK and France. The only countries to lose more were Russia (10,700,000), Germany (5,533,000), China (3,800,000), and Japan (2,041,000). Our freedoms come with a cost from those willing to sacrifice their lives to protect us.
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 Mike and a couple of Saint-Gobain folks reflected in the historical marker |
Normandy cemetery, from above |
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