Luxembourg: Remembering America's fallen heroes

After Germany, the plan was to meet some family friends in France. Their names are Geoff and Jennifer Fournier. My dad met Geoff while Geoff was in the Navy and my dad was in the Marines, and they stayed close afterwards. Geoff eventually moved to France to manage a U.S. cemetery and WWI memorial, and he and his wife generously offered to host us for a week when they heard we were circling through Europe.

Our plan was to catch the train from Germany to France, but it turned out that we needed reservations to do so, which we couldn’t get in time. Luckily, it just so happened that Geoff and Jennifer needed to go to Luxembourg to register their new car, and Faeth and I could easily hop on the train to that country instead. So quite unexpectedly, we ended up adding another country to our “visited” list.

Getting there was an adventure, since our train was an hour late to the first stop, making us miss our connection (so much for that famous German punctuality!). But we were able to take another later train and arrive only an hour late overall, so it wasn’t terrible. Geoff and Jennifer picked us up at the train station and offered to show us the Luxembourg American Cemetery and WWII War Memorial. Their friend Scott runs it, and he gave us a tour around the site.

The cemetery is impressive in its sheer size: 50 acres and 5,076 white grave markers to commemorate the American forces who lost their lives fighting in WWII. Among the dead buried here is General Patton (who did not die in battle but in an automobile accident). Many of these fighters died in the famous Battle of the Bulge, which took place in the Ardennes Forest only miles away from the cemetery. (In fact, the country of Luxemburg is so grateful for the Allies’ support that it offered the cemetery land to the U.S. for free and still pays for the water supply.)

The chapel includes a mosaic inside representing the protection of peace

While we were in the cemetery, we visited the Wall of the Missing, which listed 307 Americans who had died in combat in the area and never been recovered, and saw the chapel, which had a giant angel carved in the front and doors inscribed with the eight virtues of the U.S. soldier.

Rosettes signify a soldier whose body has been recovered

 

Both of these monuments were impressive, but what moved me most was looking out over all those pristine white grave markers. Some of them didn’t even have names carved onto them, only “a comrade-in-arms known only to God.” So many men and women lost their lives fighting a war 70 years ago so that the rest of us could be free and safe. When you see all those graves, it’s hard not to get caught up in cold statistics. But every soldier who died had a family, and friends, and plans, and dreams. Every soldier who went out onto the field under a haze of machine gun fire knew what he was risking—and risked it anyway. It sounds trite, but it’s true: these are American’s true heroes.

The cemetery commemorates more than 5,000 Americans who gave their lives for us

I think the best way to sum it up is to reference the quote carved on the side of the Luxembourg cemetery chapel:

“In proud remembrance of the achievement of her sons and in humble tribute to their sacrifices, this monument has been erected by the United States of America.”