National D-Day Memorial, Bedford, Virginia

On the way home from our family reunion, my son and I visited the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia which is 27 miles east of Roanoke in south west Virginia, about a four hour drive from here.

Everything there represented something -- or more than one something.  I wish I remembered more of the details we learned in the little tour and in wandering around afterward.  I have an uncle who was killed during World War II; my mom and her brothers and sisters grew up about 90 miles from here.  My uncle did not die on D-Day -- he landed about three days later and died in France a couple months later.

We took a riding tour of the memorial, starting with the planning garden which is shaped like the shoulder patch of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF).  We then went to the landing tableau in the center of the memorial, representing the beach itself.  Above the landing tableau is a plaza with the Overlord Arch and the flags of all the Allied Expeditionary Force nations.  Beyond that is an area remembering the push inland by the allies into France.  After the riding tour, we walked part of the memorial and took more photos, retracing some of the tour.  I took photos all along the way and the photos appear in the order that I took them.

As a footnote, one of the locals told me that none of them ever go to the memorial.  I was too surprised to ask why.