(NEXSTAR) – The Normandy American Cemetery honors the sacrifice of more than 9,000 U.S. service members, most of whom died on D-Day.
Within the 172-acre cemetery is a memorial featuring the Walls of the Missing. More than 1,500 names of soldiers whose remains were never found are inscribed on the walls. Rosettes mark the names of those whose remains have since been recovered and identified.
“This cemetery commemorates the sacrifice of an entire young generation, but also the sacrifice of all those families because they were all the son or the brother of someone,” Historian, Anthony Foulquier said. “Many of them just got married before they left home. There were husbands, parents, but they were all part of family.”
The memorial is also home to a semicircular garden featuring a bronze statue known as “The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.”
It depicts the waves of Omaha and Utah beaches where thousands of young Americans lost their lives on D-Day.
