Local man reflects on visit to Normandy for D-Day anniversary

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO-WAWV) – It’s now 80 years and counting since D-Day. The anniversary of the invasion attracted a lot of attention and visitors to Normandy.

Brian Mundell from Terre Haute has attended several D-Day anniversaries and each one is very special. He runs the Veterans Memorial Museum of Terre Haute. His recent visit to Normandy was his sixth trip.

“I like being there and meeting the veterans, it’s very patriotic, said Mundell.

Mundell say the biggest change in 2024, from his previous visits, involved the D-Day veterans.
They were fewer in number. He did see some, but most are in their late 90’s and in big demand.
Like a American World War II veteran who sang proudly for a crowd .

On this trip, Mundell found the house where Terre Haute native Granville Lowe gathered with
his comrades before a famous American bayonet charge against the Germans.

“That’s one thing about going over there buildings, places, churches, they don’t tear them down as much as we do here,” said Mundell.

Mundell was very impressed the number of reenactors,like these men who looked like
American G.I.’s.

“There’s just thousands of men, women and kids dressed up as American soldiers,” Mundell said.

Mundell was also amazed at the number of vehicles and the attention to detail.
Jeeps, tanks, airplanes, many in working condition. Also, there were people dressed as French citizens from 1944. It was like going back in time.

Visitors to Normandy packed the roads, much like the Covered Bridge Festival in Indiana.
They visited famous sites, like the church in Sainte Mere Elise where an American paratrooper
landed on a church pinnacle, eight decades ago.

Mundell says the French are still thankful for what America did during the war.
He stayed within site of Utah Beach at a home owned by a French friend, who painstakingly
maintains this American flag cut in his yard.

For Mundell and a lot of visitors the most emotional location is the quiet beauty of the
American cemetery near Omaha Beach. The resting place for almost 10 thousand military
personnel.

“To think of all those guys who never had a chance to live a full life to get married or probably never had a girlfriend. Some of them never made it out of their hometown until they got into the service. All those lives, it’s sad,” said Mundell.

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