Submitted Photo Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial honors American troops who died in Europe during World War II. It is one of the world’s best-known and most visited military memorials. Photo from Pixabay.

Editor’s Note: Milton Rolle of Minot and his wife, Bonnie, visited the landing beaches and battlefields of D-Day in Normandy, France, in May 2004. This is his account of their visit to the site, published in June 2004 in the “Prairie Flower,” a publication of the Minot Rotary Club. Rolle is an Army veteran who served during the Korean War. Today, the U.S. along with a number of other countries are supporting Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine War.

Last month (May 2004) my wife, Bonnie, and I visited the landing beaches and battlefields of D-Day in Normandy, France. Normandy (a Norwegian name) is the area of France settled by Norman Viking warriors 1,200 years ago and their ancestors are still there.

This is something I have wanted to see for years. I remember the landings – I was 10 years old and everyone was talking about the landing. Over the years my interest in D-Day has been further stimulated by the many movies and TV showings of the invasion on Normandy, such as “Saving Private Ryan.”

June 6, 2004, marked the 60th anniversary of the largest invasion in wartime history. The allies assembled 3 million men, 11,500 aircraft, 5,000 large ships and 4,000 smaller landing crafts for D-Day.

The invasion marked the beginning of the end of Hitler’s insane idea to dominate the world. When German Field Marshal Rommel was told that the invasion had started, he said “for the allies as well as Germany, it will be the longest day.”

After the war, Cornelius Ryan wrote the bestselling book, “The Longest Day.” The book was made into a three-hour movie. Ryan’s book and the movie are based on actual interviews and quotes from the men who were involved in D-Day.

One of the contributors that Ryan interviewed was Chaplain Johan Dahlen, who after the war became the Lutheran pastor at Churchs Ferry. In 1957 Bonnie and I were married in Churchs Ferry by Rev. Dahlen.

Today, Normandy is visited by 2 million tourists annually. They come to see the five beaches that stretch 60 miles on the north coast of France – named by the allies they are Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword.

They also come to see the war museums, exhibits, monuments and the American Military Cemetery.

The cemetery covers 173 acres and contains the graves of 9,386 Americans. Each grave is marked by a white marble headstone Christian Cross or a Jewish Star of David.

Each headstone is perfectly aligned row after row, standing on an immaculately manicured emerald green lawn. At the time we visited the cemetery we were part of perhaps 500 people that were walking and reading headstones in almost complete silence.

As we read the name, rank and home state on about 200 headstones, we found two graves that had fresh cut flowers (which they remove after a day or two) lying in front of the marker – one was PFC Sevrein J. Ryan from North Dakota.

Altogether we found the graves of seven servicemen from North Dakota of the 73 that were laid to rest in this U.S. Military Cemetery.

This was a memorable experience because over the years I have met servicemen who were there and families who lost loved ones in the invasion of Normandy.