Some Gave All

Today we went to Saint Avold, France, to the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, established 16 March 1945. It contains 10,489 American Soldiers. It's the largest American Cemetery in Europe. Of those 10,489, 200 are Jewish faith, their graves marked with the Star of David, while the rest are all crosses. All tombstones are made of Italian Marble. In addition to the graves, there are 151 Unknown Soldiers whose names are on a wall, but they do not know who is buried in which grave.

There are 28 sets of brothers buried side by side, eight women who served as Army Nurses, Women's Army Corps, and in the American Red Cross. Four graves are done in gold wording as they received the Medal of Honor, the highest honor. There was also one grave where three men were buried together.

We walked through all of the sections, but we did not pass every tombstone. As it was, we were there for over a hour. I took pictures of the cemetery, took several pictures of tombstones of men from Kentucky as it listed the state they were from. I took a picture of one Medal of Honor grave, as we only found or ran across one, took one of an Unknown grave, took one of brothers buried side by side, several of just the cemetery from different angles, and one of the Star of David graves.

There is a large memorial with five figures on the wall that represent the eternal struggle for freedom typified by religious and military heroes who, throughout history have taken part in the struggle for freedom. On the left was David, King of Israel, at his feet is the sling with which he slew Goliath. Next to King David is Constantine the Great, more eminent of the 14 Constantines of history and the first Roman Emperor to recognize Christianity. In the center is a figure that represents the Gallant Warrior, to portray all soldiers who have fought in the War. To his right was King Arthur, most colorful King of England, best known for his knights of the Round Table. And on the extreme right was George Washington, Father of our country.