LDS Missionary: France Paris Mission

Normandy Beaches

June 6, 1944, Operation Neptune, or better known as the D-Day Invasions, occurred. France, at this point, was under Nazi control until many brave soldiers landed on the Normandy beaches which led to the liberation of France and ultimately helped lead to an Allied victory in the World War II.

Fast forward about 66 and a half years and I was on my way to see those historic beaches and the landmarks that now stand there. We passed many tiny villages as we drove the hour and a half to Omaha Beach. We arrived and Elders Draleau, Hoopes, Walker, and Elder Gull were there waiting for us. Upon joining them, we started walking up to the museum part of the memorial which didn't sit on the beach at all.

"Hey, how's it hanging?" someone yelled, in English, across the walkway leading to the museum.

"Yeah," Elder Draleau responded. The man was clearly a worker at the museum because he was wearing a nametag and a uniform.

"Awesome, me too," the man responded. "I'm from Washington. Where are you guys from? Are you looking for a tour?"

"That's cool, I'm from Washington also," Elder Draleau said, apparently becoming our spokesperson. "Sure. We are just here to look around, but a tour would be great."

After a small greeting, we were led quickly through the museum because we wanted to see it, but not spend tons of time inside on such a beautiful day, especially when we were at the D-day beaches and the memorial was outside.

"It's been a really slow day today for us," the tour guide said. "I'll call over my French colleague, he knows this place better than anyone. Oh, and don't worry, he speaks better English than I do sometimes."

He called out on his radio as we stepped into a small garden area where there was a semi circle wall built. There were names engraved on the wall. In the middle of the wall, it read "Garden of the Missing."

"This is where they engraved all of the names of the people that couldn't be identified or found, but were killed in action. There are 1,557 names on the wall," the tour guide explained.

"What do the black dots mean?" I asked, noticing some of the names had dots next to them.

"Those signify people who were later identified or found," he replied. Then he motioned toward the rows of pearly white graves, and said, "Some of these headstones don't have names on them. Those names are somewhere on this wall."

We walked out of the garden and started making our way to the countless number of white gravestones that lined the grass. Most of the headstones were in the shape of a cross, but there were a few in the shape of the Star of David, indicating each soldier's beliefs, Christian or Jewish.