Just an amazing day today. Again, a full day starting with breakfast in the hotel in Reims. Out early, and through some little quaint villages to see the Quentin Roosevelt fountain. It memorialized the place where he was shot down as a WWI pilot. For a time he was buried there, but was moved after WWII to be buried with his brother in Normandy.
Quentin was the Roosevelt for whom the airfield in Long Island was named. Roosevelt Field, and all this time I thought it was for his dad, Teddy. However, apparently the Army Air Corp named its airfields after fallen hero/airmen.
The fountain was in the town of Coulonges-Cohan. Also we went to the American WWI monument which states, “Time will not dim the glory of their Deeds”. It overlooks Chateau Thiery. This is in Luxembourg. The leaves all around the country side are so beautiful and seems like an earlier month in the fall than November. Our 3 van convoy is proceeding together this morning.
We had an unscheduled stop at the Chateau Thiery airport and viewed a monument to the airman who lost their lives in WWI and II form this grass strip.This memorial states, “A Nos Morts” This means “To our Dead”. There were 4 for each war.
As we proceeded into the gates of Bellau Wood monument, the sycamore trees majestically lined the road. In our stop into the visitors center, we happened to arrive just as a bus load of vets also arrived. This was so amazing. The eldest was a 99 year old veteran of WWII who had made the D Day invasion, another was a veteran of Iwo Jima, and yet another was the radio operator for General Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was so inspiring meeting these true heroes of freedom.
The visitor center curator was French, and he emotionally presented the 99 year old vet a packet with a US flag, and holding back tears told him that he was a Norman, and he and his family thank him for his sacrifices for his freedom. The vet described how they took a certain town from the Germans, and the Frenchman, also a little more emotionally now, said, that is wher I was born. Wow.
Bernie gave a speech to us all with the veterans present. “My brother came back from Vietnam, spending 23 year in the Navy, it was the first time that someone had said thanks for your service. Prior to that everyone just said Thank you. So I'm not going to say thanks for your service for being out on the pointy end of the sword, the frontier of freedom.I'm going to say thank you for our freedom."
May the gallant Marines who gave their lives for Corps and country Rest In Peace.
Quotes from USMC "Retreat, Hell, We just got here". Major Lloyd Williams, commanding the 51st Company 5th Marine Regiment, responding to a French Colonel who ordered retreat.
"Come on you sons of bitches Do you want to live forever?" Dan Daly, SGT Major at Belleau Wood
Term Devil Dogs coined here, the Germans soldiers described the U.S. Marines who fought with such ferocity that they were called Teufel Hunde, which hell dogs in German.
Down in the town of Bellau wood we went to the Devil Dog fountain which was a bull mastiff. Hounds of Hell in German translation. This town was known for breeding these dogs, but also where the Germans called the Marines this.
Local cafe in town, gave owner a challenge coin
Pletch, Steve, and Marcus
5 hour drive to Normandy, around Paris right by Charles de Gaulle again, I helped Q drive, since he'd been doing all of the "heavy lifting" when it came to driving
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