“Remembering the Sacrifices at Normandy” topic of Tuesday program

Retired history teacher Julie Mitchell and Jessie Henderson, winner of the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute History Day Competition in 2022, will present “Remembering the Sacrifices at Normandy” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 9, at the Blount County Public Library’s Sharon Lawson Room. The program is sponsored by the Blount County Genealogical and Historical Society, and admission is free and open to the public.

“We will be sharing about our experiences with a program called the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute, which is conducted in conjunction with Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.,” Mitchell said. “It’s a semester-long program where student and teacher teams study the D-Day Campaign, the Normandy invasion and the other battles within the Normandy campaign itself.” The Normandy Invasion during World War II was launched on June 6, 1944 — D-Day — by Allied forces against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan, with the simultaneous landing of U.S., British and Canadian forces on five separate beachheads in Normandy, France. “The program culminates in a two-week ‘place-based learning,’ where one week is spent in Washington, D.C., and one week in Normandy, France. It’s an amazing program.

“We’ll be talking about our experience with the program overall, and then we’ll highlight our experiences in Normandy itself,” Mitchell said. “We’ll talk about some things we got to do in D.C., which were special and phenomenal, but we will focus mostly on Normandy. We’ll share a lot of pictures and the key things that stood out to us. Jessie is going to talk about the Atlantic Wall, the Nazi defense systems. We’re going to talk about a few soldier stories that stood out to us while we were there.”

Hometown soldier

Mitchell said one of the most exciting parts of the program is that the students are required to research a soldier from their hometown who was involved in the Normandy Campaign and is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. Mitchell and Henderson are from Cleveland in Bradley County.

“From Cleveland, there are only two buried in the Normandy American Cemetery, so we had to choose only one,” Mitchell said. “Jessie chose the one who had gone to the same high school as she did and with a few other similarities like that. She got to interview his daughter, who never knew him. She was only 1 year old when he was killed in action. What really makes the program stand out is that it gives the students and teachers an opportunity to really put a face with the experience in World War II. You really feel like this soldier becomes a part of your family because you spend so much time researching this person. Then when you’re in Normandy, you think about, ‘Was my soldier here?’ ‘Was my soldier in this battle?’ or ‘This is where my soldier was involved in a battle.’ The experience becomes much more meaningful.”

The visit to Normandy was moving for both students and teachers, especially at the cemetery.

“We have the opportunity to pay our respects at their soldier’s gravesite, and it’s quite emotional, for sure,” Mitchell said.

Student of history

Mitchell and Henderson participated in the program in 2022 during Henderson’s senior year of high school. She is now attending Lee University in Cleveland, where she is a rising junior pursuing a double major in history and digital media.

“She had a real interest and love for creating historical documentaries,” Mitchell said. “She is a former National History Day student, and she has received several different awards and medals. She always did documentary as her National History Day category, and she fared quite well in several of those competitions. She competed for five years from middle school all the way through high school. In fact, National History Day is how we found out about the Normandy program.”

Mitchell is looking forward to a good turnout at their presentation Tuesday.

“I hope people who are interested will come out,” she said. “There are some great stories.

“One of the things I have appreciated for this program is that it has given us a platform to show people how there are young people out there who are not only interested in the history but are so appreciative of the people who have fought and continue to fight for our freedom in America. I think sometimes young people get left out of that story. This program has been a great way for us to show that, and the program allows these kids who have that passion to dive so deep into it.”