American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer

The Normandy American Cemetery is one of 14 permanent American WWII military cemeteries on foreign soil.  The French government has granted use of this land, in perpetuity, without charge, as a permanent burial ground. This cemetery is 172.5 acres and contains 9387 headstones, some of which are crosses and some of which are stars of David. Two-thirds of families of American dead opted for repatriation of remains instead of burial on foreign soil, so this cemetery contains only those who died in the Normandy invasion or who were wounded here and subsequently died of their injuries. Many of the stones are of unknown soldiers. Those whose names are known are marked with name, unit, rank and date of death.  The garden also contains a memorial with a 22-foot statue named The Spirit of American Youth Rising and a wall of engraved tablets with the names of the missing in action who gave their lives in this conflict. At the far end is a nondenominational chapel with a mosaic ceiling depicting America blessing her sons as they leave for France via boats and airplanes and a grateful France bestowing a laurel wreath upon the American dead. 

At the end of the day we witnessed a ceremony where the flags were lowered to the sound of taps. The flags were folded and presented to an American and a Luxembourg war veteran.