Notes from France honor US soldiers’ D-Day sacrifice
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Lt. Col. Michael Burns didn’t know exactly what was inside the small brown box that arrived on his Fayetteville, North Carolina, doorstep, but the return address in the left corner let himknowhe couldn’t open it right away.
The package came from Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French village to be liberated from Nazi occupation by the U.S. Army’s storied 82nd Airborne Division on June 6, 1944. Every year since, division paratroopers travel to Norm andy to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day, a trip that was canceled this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Weeks later, Burns, a public affairs officer, sat the unopened box down inside the 82nd Airborne Division Museum on Fort Bragg, surrounded by glass cases filled with perfectly preserved green service uniforms, shining jump boots and other World War II relics.
He’d assembled a group of paratroopers and a historian to take part in the unboxing as his team setup cameras and lights to capture the reveal.
Capt. Darren Cinatl began pulling openthetightly wrapped package. The history buff jumped into Norm andy for the commemoration three times. Each time he tries to imagine what it was like for the young men unknowingly on the verge of history.
Beneath the brown paper lay a keepsake box decorated with American decals — 500 handwritten postcards from the residents of Sainte-Mere-Eglise inside.
After the celebrations were canceled in June, town Mayor Alain Holley organized an effort alongside U.S. Army Europe to express their gratitude for the long-standing relationship they share withthedivision. Earlier in the year, the division hadsentred and blue All American Division patches to the town’s children.
While Holley watched by video call, the group took turns reading the cards out loud.
“I’m so glad to write a few words from the ground you know so well,” someone wrote. “Thanks to you I’ m free to do so .”
A 9-year-old child named Gabriel told U.S. soldiers his birthday is June 6. He wanted to thank them for the sacrifice they made to make him free.
Duringhisvisits to Normandy, Cinatl is always struck by the local’s grasp of U.S. history, specifically how well they know the ins and outs of the 82nd. Children in France know much more about American military history, he admits, than kids in the United States do.
“To them, it’s their family story,” he said. Twelve thousand menfrom the 82nd joined Allied forces on June 5 and 6, 1944, to liberate German-occupied France. Thousands parachuted blindly out of low-flying planes into unknown territory alongside the 101st Airborne Division.
The 82nd lost 1,100 soldiers during the campaign, and the ones whosurvived are passing at a staggering rate, especially in a pandemic that is more deadly for older people.
One final postcard came from Christophe, a waiter at a restaurant in Sainte-Mere-Eglise’s church square. He told the American soldiers to look forth et all guy in the Yankees cap when they return to Normandy next June.
“Show me this postcard and there will be a free beer in it for you,” he wrote.