UTAH

Unlike yesterday today was warm and about 62F at noon. This day was devoted to the 101st and 82nd Airborne Parachute Infantry divisions. On D Day they jumped several hours before the assault on Utah Beach, also invaded by American infantry divisions.  The beaches could not be more different geographically. Whereas Rangers had to scale Pointe du Hoc, the PIR parachutists and glider companies were tasked with clearing Utah Beach from the rear. These are what the Band of Brothers, Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment did.

As anyone who has seen " Band of Brother," Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day," or read the books then you know that the planes carrying parachutists were blown off course by the wind, or their formation was destroyed by German flak. Their job was made more difficult by fields flooded by the Germans. The ultimately prevailed with heavy casualties, but not as heavy as those on Omaha.

In the afternoon we visited St Mer Eglise, known best for the parachutist caught on the church's cathedral steeple. Seacoast Community Chorus singers visited this church in 2011 and saw its beautiful stained glass windows with  St Michael portrayed as a parachutist. There is another window at the back of the church that also includes liberating soldiers with holy ones.

On a completely personal note: I have been able to be a slow but steady member of our group, trying to participate in every activity if only for a little while. My average distance has been around 5 Km/day--with a bad back and bleeding blister on my right foot. In St Mer Eglise my friend Liz found me a drug store and when I walked out I had 48 Euros worth of bandages for the blister on my right toe that has been the guilty culprit.

Antoine Saintt Exeupery, the author of the "Little Prince," a children's book for grown ups wrote the following to the men going to Utah Beach, after describing them as honorable men who gave up their comfortable lives in the US to join the fight:

And what were they told that could motivate [American men] them to sacrifice their lives?They were told of hostages hanged in Poland. They were told of prisoners shot in France. They were told that a new form of slavery threatened  to extinguish a part of Humanity. They were told not about themselves but of others. That gave them a sense of solidarity with Mankind. 

The fifty thousand soldiers in my convoy went to war not to save American Citizens, but rather for Man himself, respect for Mankind, liberty for all men, the greatness of Man...

 Let that still be true.