One of the guys on the trip was an American like myself, but has an extremely German sounding last name. Every time he'd pick up a gun or any of the equipment we'd be all "LOOK OUT YANKS!" But it is kind of hard not to sit in some of those places and not try to imagine what it must have been like on D Day. Seeing boats dotting the horizon, planes bombing and doing straffing runs, thousands of soldiers storming the beach. We sat on Omaha Beach one day for awhile, just kind of hard to imagine what took place there. It's just been so long now there's really no signs of it, and the gun placements are not as big and plentiful as the movies portray (they face DOWN the beach, not towards the water) It was just a beautiful beach, people riding horses, people out for walks, us just chilling with a glass of wine. Hard to really fathom what happened there... until you go to the German and US cemetaries in the area and see the thousands of tombstones.Did you guys pretend to be soldiers waiting for the Allies?
I was about 8 when my grandfather took me to the Los Angeles National Cemetery for the first time. While we were walking through the rows, I heard his voice catch and say something to the effect of "they left their chairs strewn behind them". Thisimmediately transfigured into something similar to this in my mind. In fact, when I saw that installation on tumblr, I was immediately hit strongly with that particular memory. I can't empathize the stark authoritative lines for some reason; chaos is more understandable, more relate-able. For all I know, my grandpa was probably commenting on actual chairs left behind at someone's graveside and my defining turning point was accidental all along.Hard to really fathom what happened there... until you go to the German and US cemetaries in the area and see the thousands of tombstones.