In the grainy old film clip a reporter was asking a fresh faced young soldier what he was thinking about just before he jumped from the aircraft during the Normandy invasion. He replied as I expected, “I was praying”. It was the words of his prayer that were unexpected.

What would you pray? I know I would be begging God to spare my life, to send me home safe and sound, to spare the lives of my fellow soldiers.

This young man, who should have been in his freshman year at college, told the reporter he prayed “God, give me courage”. Over and over again he sent up the request for courage.

Such was the caliber of the men who stormed Omaha Beach, dropped into the hedgerows of Normandy, trudged through the jungles of the South Pacific, and ultimately won the war for the Allied forces.

Such was the caliber of the men whose crosses line up perfectly across the 172 acres of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

A staggering 9,387 soldiers are buried here, including two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, Medal of Honor recipient Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Quentin Roosevelt (who had been killed in WWI and whose remains were exhumed and reburied next to his brother).

The names of 1,557 Americans who died but whose remains could not be found are engraved on the walls of semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial. In the center of the semicircle is the bronze statue entitled Spirit of American Youth.

If you stand in the center of the semicircle with the statue at your back, you look directly west across the reflecting pool, flanked by countless rows of white crosses, and on to a circular chapel on the far side of the grounds. Standing there in the stillness was one of the most moving experiences of my life.

There is an orientation table overlooking the beach that depicts the landings at Normandy. There are also steps leading down to the beach.

The expanse of sand was wide, the skies were overcast, and it was easy for me and my group to envision the landing forces coming ashore on June 6, 1944. 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft as well as troop transports and minesweepers. Nearly 5,000 vessels of every type, the largest armada ever assembled, could be imagined floating just beyond the rolling waves as we stood in the cold on Omaha Beach.

Over 100,000 men came ashore that day. Poor weather conditions worked to the advantage of our military as the Germans did not believe it would be possible to launch an offensive in such high seas. General Dwight David Eisenhower traveled to Newbury to bid farewell to the members of the 101st Airborne Division before they left for battle. He was reported to have had tears in his eyes as he walked away from his troops, fully expecting 80% of them to die in battle.

Many landing craft were swamped during the ten-mile run from the mother ships to shore. Over half of the amphibious tanks went down. Survivors reached shore seasick and wobbling, facing a tangle of obstructions: concrete cones, logs tilted seaward with mines strapped to their tips, steel rails welded together at angles. Above it all a line of cliffs four miles long and up to 150 feet high dotted with ravines and bluffs covered with antipersonnel mines and Germany infantrymen hiding in bunkers with machine guns that could easily dominate the shoreline below.

President Roosevelt described the assault as “a mighty endeavor, to preserve our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity”.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is a place I am proud to have seen and it was my privilege to pay my respects to the almost 10,000 men who lost their lives there.