"Terrence Thorn--What this video failed to mention was that 80 percent of these soldiers never saw their 20th birthday. They were boys.
My high school son and I visited this cemetery on June 6, 2013.
After walking around for a while and reading the names of the fallen soldiers, the math of their birthdays and their recorded deaths overcame me and I wept.
Maybe because my son was that age at the time.
The 2 figures at the top of the mound on either side of the cross represent a mother and father.
For decades after the war, they would visit this cemetery on the birthday of their sons and grieve.
Yes, they were the enemy but few of them were Nazis.
They believed that they were patriots of the "Fatherland". 80 percent of the 21 thousand buried here were between 17 and 20 years old when they died.
The mound actually holds over 200 un-identified remains. Our visit to Normandy made us, as Americans, proud but profoundly sad at the same time.
What is up-lifting though, is the way France honors all soldiers who have fallen on French soil."
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