A Memorial Day to Remember

This past weekend the USO provided a trip to see some important parts of American History in honor of Memorial Day. The tour started off with a trip to Belgium to see the memorial built to remember the Battle of the Buldge.


The Battle of the Buldge Memorial in Bastogne, Belgium

The Battle of the Buldge is considered one of the major conflicts of WWII, second only to the Normandy beach landings. It was Hitler's last offensive surge of the war. The majority of the fighting took place in Bastogne, Belgium where today a huge Memorial is erected in honor of the American force who fought there. The memorial had engraved in it all the units of the Army that were involved with the fighting, a brief story wrapping up the intense two months, and every state of the US crowning the memorial. Alongside was a museum with several artifacts from the era.


The center of the memorial, the center stone reads "The people of Belgium remember their American Liberators"



The chapel inside the German cemetery

We then went to visit a German cemetery where hundreds of Getrmans laid to rest. The idea was to compare the two types of cemetery's, US and German. Our last stop was at the Luxembourg American cemetery and Memorial, the final resting place of General Patton. He lay at the front of all the other soldiers as if in an eternal formation with him at the lead, just as he wished. We got there as they were closing and got to see the lowering of the flags for the evening on Memorial Day, one I won't forget anytime soon.


The Headstone of General Patton facing all the buried soldiers in the cemetery


The Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial