Triumph of the Dead: American World War II Cemeteries, Monuments, and Diplomacy in France

By Kate Clarke Lemay

An investigation into the relationship between history, art, architecture, memory, and diplomacy.
 
Between 1948 and 1956, the United States government planned an enormous project to build fourteen permanent overseas military cemeteries in Europe. These park-like burial grounds eventually would hold the graves of approximately 80,000 American soldiers and nurses who died during or immediately after World War II. Five of these cemeteries are located in France, more than any other nation: two in Normandy; one in Provence; and two in Lorraine.
 
In Triumph of the Dead: American World War II Cemeteries, Monuments, and Diplomacy in France, Kate Clarke Lemay explores the relationship between art, architecture, war memory, and Franco-American relations. She addresses the many functions, both original and more recent, that the American war cemeteries have performed, such as: war memorials, diplomatic gestures, Cold War political statements, prompts for debate about Franco-American relations, and the nature of French identity itself. Located on or near former battlefields, the American war cemeteries are at once history lessons, sites of memory, and commemorative monuments. As places of mourning, war cemeteries are considerably different than civic cemeteries in their rituals, designs, and influences on collective memory. As transatlantic sites, the cemeteries both construct and sustain an American memory of World War II for a Francophile and European audience.
 
The book features ten color photographs, fifty black and white photographs, and four maps. Scholars as well as enthusiasts of World War II history, mid-century art and architecture, and cultural diplomacy will be interested in reading this richly researched book, the first in-depth history of some of the most important sites of American World War II remembrance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780817391812

Book preview

TRIUMPH OF THE DEAD

WAR, MEMORY, AND CULTURE

SERIES EDITOR

Steven Trout

ADVISORY BOARD

Joan Beaumont

Philip D. Beidler

John Bodnar

Patrick Hagopian

Mara Kozelsky

Edward T. Linenthal

Kendall R. Phillips

Kirk Savage

Jay Winter

Series published in cooperation with

http://www.southalabama.edu/departments/research/warandmemory/

Susan McCready, Content Editor

TRIUMPH OF THE DEAD

AMERICAN WORLD WAR II CEMETERIES, MONUMENTS, AND DIPLOMACY IN FRANCE

KATE CLARKE LEMAY

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa

The University of Alabama Press

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380

uapress.ua.edu

Copyright © 2018 by the University of Alabama Press

All rights reserved.

Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be addressed to the University of Alabama Press.

Typeface: Janson Text LT

Cover image: The Memorial Chapel of the Épinal American Cemetery, 1948–1952; courtesy of Kate Clarke Lemay

Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn

This publication has been made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art International Publication Program of the College Art Association.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-0-8173-1981-6

E-ISBN: 978-0-8173-9181-2

In memory of my parents

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Bodies of the Dead

2. Trauma in Normandy

3. Design and the Control of Memory

4. Militarism and Aesthetics

5. The Midcentury Shift in Style

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE 1. Norwood Thomas, Normandy, France, June 6, 2014

FIGURE 2. The temporary American cemeteries in Europe (excluding Germany), 1944–1949

FIGURE 3. The permanent American war cemeteries in Europe and North Africa, 1956–present

FIGURE 4. John Reekie, a burial party on the battlefield of Cold Harbor, Virginia, April 1865

FIGURE 5. Bones in the crypt of the Ossuaire de Douaumont, Verdun

FIGURE 6. The temporary American war cemeteries in Normandy, 1944–1949

FIGURE 7. "Faux tombes," for civilian dead, Saint-Marcouf, Manche, Normandy

FIGURE 8. Monument to civilian dead, Saint-Lô, Manche, Normandy

FIGURE 9. Headquarters Building of the United Nations, New York City

FIGURE 10. Saint-Avold Temporary American Cemetery in transition to becoming the permanent Lorraine American Cemetery, July 1948

FIGURE 11. Norman women lay flowers of the graves of fallen Americans in a temporary American cemetery in Normandy, 1944

FIGURE 12. Norman girl places a second set of flowers on one of the first American graves made at temporary American cemetery

FIGURE 13. School children decorate graves with flags and flowers to commemorate the first anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1946

FIGURE 14. Norman women lay flowers on an isolated American grave and collect personal items and identifying information, 1944

FIGURE 15. Simone Renaud lays flowers on the tomb of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., May 1944

FIGURE 16. Portrait of Jean-Pierre Catherine, 1943

FIGURE 17. D-Day and Battle of Normandy, 1944

FIGURE 18. Signal Monument, Omaha Beach

FIGURE 19. Vestiges of mulberry, Arromanches-les-Bains, Calvados, Normandy

FIGURE 20. Destruction of Caen, June 1944

FIGURE 21. Totem historical marker, Manche, Normandy

FIGURE 22. Front page of La Normandie: Le Bessin, May 3, 1985

FIGURE 23. A sample of a German totenburgen

FIGURE 24. Architectural plans for American and German graves

FIGURE 25. La Cambe German Military Cemetery immediately after its dedication in 1961

FIGURE 26. La Cambe German Military Cemetery with added landscaping that helps to further obscure the number of graves

FIGURE 27. View of the southern plots of graves at the Brittany American Cemetery

FIGURE 28. Plan of the Memorial Chapel of the Épinal American Cemetery, 1948

FIGURE 29. Memorial Chapel of the Épinal American Cemetery

FIGURE 30. Model of the Bird’s Eye View of the Lorraine American Cemetery, 1948

FIGURE 31. Bird’s Eye View of the Normandy American Cemetery

FIGURE 32. Memorial Chapel of the Brittany American Cemetery

FIGURE 33. Memorial Chapel of the Rhone American Cemetery

FIGURE 34. Headstones in the Normandy American Cemetery

FIGURE 35. Joan of Arc in Stars and Stripes, May 9, 1919

FIGURE 36. Commonwealth headstone of the grave of Clarence Wright

FIGURE 37. Inscription on the back of an American headstone in the Suresnes American Cemetery

FIGURE 38. Williams Adam Delano, architectural drawing of Épinal American Cemetery, 1948

FIGURE 39. Malvina Hoffman, War, 1952, bas-relief

FIGURE 40. Malvina Hoffman, Survival of the Spirit, 1952, bas-relief

FIGURE 41. Malvina Hoffman, War, preliminary clay intaglio study, 1948

FIGURE 42. Malvina Hoffman, War, final clay intaglio study, 1948

FIGURE 43. Malvina Hoffman, Survival of the Spirit, preliminary clay intaglio study, 1948

FIGURE 44. Malvina Hoffman, Survival of the Spirit, final clay intaglio study, 1948

FIGURE 45. General view of Plot E, Oise-Aisne American Cemetery

FIGURE 46. French headstones made of ferro concrete

FIGURE 47. General view of the interior of the Memorial Chapel, Brittany American Cemetery

FIGURE 48. Edward Shenton, Military Operations in Western Europe, 6 June 1944 through 8 May 1945

FIGURE 49. Edward Shenton, The Breakout from the Beachhead and Advance to the Seine

FIGURE 50. Detail of the Breakout battle map located in the Brittany American Cemetery

FIGURE 51. Lee Lawrie, Chivalry of American Youth

FIGURE 52. Sir Edward Lutyens, Stone of Remembrance and Cross of Sacrifice, Cambe-en-Plaine Commonwealth War Cemetery, Calvados, Normandy

FIGURE 53. Athena in the Pergamon Altar, Pergamon Museum, Berlin

FIGURE 54. Detail of Columbia storming the southern beaches of Provence

FIGURE 55. Detail of the Altar of Victory and the Angel of Peace

FIGURE 56. Detail of le bleuet, or cornflower

FIGURE 57. J. N. Ding Darling, Making it Tough for Santa Claus, Des Moines Register, November 25, 1947

FIGURE 58. Detail of Epinal American Cemetery battle map designed and installed by Eugene Francis Savage in 1952

FIGURE 59. Donald de Lue, The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves

FIGURE 60. Lorraine American Cemetery

FIGURE 61. Nebraska State Capitol Building, south tower, with transept carvings by Lee Lawrie, 1935

FIGURE 62. The Federal Triangle, 1926–1931, Washington, DC

FIGURE 63. Edward Durrell Stone, American Embassy in New Delhi, India, 1954

FIGURE 64. Norwood Thomas during his return to Normandy, June 10, 2014

PREFACE

BRUCHEVILLE (MANCHE): THE RETURN

On June 6, 2014, at 8:30 in the morning, I gazed upward and noted the slow-moving, low-lying clouds stretched across the sky. Rays of light reflected off the waters of the nearby English Channel, reached up to the clouds, and bounced off them, returning back below. In such luminescence, the sky hovers close to the earth like a great blanket. I stood under the distinctive Normandy sky and watched as ninety-one year old Norwood Thomas walked into a field surrounded by tall, dense hedgerows. Moving with slow intention, Thomas solemnly scrutinized the thick bocage perimeter. Tall grass gently danced around him, courting the young apple trees. These were the first steps of his pilgrimage, of his return. A long moment passed, and he nodded. This was the place. On June 6, 1944, at 1:23 in the morning, Thomas fell from the sky into this very field. Not knowing what he would face, Thomas depended upon what became his best survival skill: guts. Only now, standing again in this field, does he realize what he was part of: the Battle of Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and the culminating defeat of Nazi Germany.

Standing in this field in 2014, Thomas tells of the worst landing of his life. Immediately after jumping from a Douglas Dakota C-47, he deployed his parachute, but not even five seconds passed before he hit the ground. Unused to such low drops, he crashed, hard—boom! Although Thomas’s face was thoroughly camouflaged, with black grease smeared all over it, he says that his first feeling in war was that of near-panic. I landed, looked around, and didn’t see any movement in the trees. Then I took off my parachute harness, and walked quickly out of the field. I had to get moving. I was out there all by myself!

Born in 1922, Norwood Thomas grew up in Durham, North Carolina, in a working class family that barely scraped by during the Depression. During the war, he fought with the 101st Airborne, 501st Regiment, 3rd Battalion Headquarters Company. He chose to be a paratrooper for three simple reasons. First, he liked the way the paratroopers wore their cap slightly cocked to the right. Thomas tells me this with a crooked smile. Second, he liked the fact that they made more money, about double what standard infantry soldiers earned. He’s nodding when he says this. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the paratrooper was the elite soldier. If there was a best, then Thomas wanted to be it. Thomas looks me squarely in the eye when he relays this last point.

After a year of training, Thomas set his cap slightly to the right, left for England, and soon found himself on board the C-47 on his way to Normandy. Miraculously, he made his drop zone, although few others had his good luck. As is well known, bad weather on June 5 delayed the departure of airborne troops. When the planes managed to leave England, visibility was awful. Using relatively crude navigation equipment, many Air Force pilots lost their way over the English Channel (although the sky became more clear in Normandy). As a result, hundreds of Allied paratroopers missed their drop zone and faced a completely different set of logistics than those for which they planned. Thomas too had to adjust. Once on the ground, the full moon helped him orient himself, but the bocage interfered with easy navigating. When finally Thomas found fellow paratroopers in nearby Hiesville, more than six hundred were missing. The lack of numbers meant everyone became an infantryman, and Thomas left his assigned radio duty until later.

In this field in Brucheville, Thomas paused as he revisited the site of his first war experience. He looked at me, and then hard at his hands, his voice dropping to a whisper. I didn’t know what it meant, to be scared. He shook his head. It was a new experience.¹

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In 2006, my eldest brother, an Army infantry ranger, completed his first combat tour in Iraq. I did not hear from him for almost sixteen months. A silence replaced a once reliable source of fun and enthusiasm. A hard-worn absence became our family’s reality as a heavy feeling, a mixture of pride dosed large with worry, replaced warm conversations and weekly updates. As the silence grew longer, I watched footage on the news of improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades, and I knew he was not safe. In the post-9/11 era, like most Americans, I was coming to grips with an acute awareness of vulnerability, one felt on many levels.

It was in these contexts that I began to notice a civic landscape previously invisible to me: war memorials. I remembered my visit to the Normandy American Cemetery from years earlier. Its unfathomable visual record of war’s loss of life was one of the most moving sights I had ever seen. Curious about who had designed this site and how it was critically received, I looked for information about its history. I was surprised to find nothing more than basic facts in brief visitors guide published by the American Battle Monuments Commission. However, I knew I had stumbled onto something significant, and I began to search for information about the American war cemeteries overseas. And in time my findings became a book.

As with any large research project, many thanks are owed here. I am grateful to Indiana University Friends of Art for funding preliminary 2007 research in France. I also had the support of United States Senator Richard Lugar, who helped facilitate an introduction to the American Battle Monuments Commission. I thank the graduate student and staff cohort at Indiana University for their wonderful community and unwavering support. From 2008–2009, at the Franco-American Fulbright Commission, Amy Tondu advocated my research, as did Arnaud Roujou de Boubée and Annette Becker. During my Fulbright, I worked closely with the American Battle Monuments Commission in Garches, France. Michael Conley and James Woolsey especially helped to facilitate my research at the ABMC cemeteries. Brigadier General Steven Hawkins answered many questions and ensured unlimited archival access, as well as an office space for me. Other ABMC employees should be mentioned for their kindness and help: Lieutenant Colonel Walter Frankland and his wife Daun encouraged my research, as did Raymond Wollman. French guides Flora Tromelin, Emilie Castel, Valerie Muller, and Nadia Ezz-Eddine spoke knowledgeably about a variety of visitors’ experiences of the cemeteries. I am grateful to Yolanda Pinazo and Rich Cobb, who helped orchestrate my research at the D-Day ceremony in 2009 during President Obama’s visit. Caroline Oliver and Vincent Joris enthusiastically encouraged my research and were always helpful. Craig and Lorna Rohanian’s warm hospitality during the 2009 Memorial Day Ceremony at the Somme American Cemetery made me feel very welcome. I thank them for including me in the memorable Canadian Vimy War Memorial Ceremony. Superintendents (some since retired) Phil Rivers, Tom Cavaness, Dwight Andy Anderson, Alan Amelinckx, Scott Desjardins, John Luncheon, Dan Neese, Hamid Faqir, David Atkinson, Jeff Aarnio, and Shane Williams each welcomed me to their cemeteries. Members of the staff of the ABMC Garches office, including Elizabeth Chia, Dominique Billes, and Frédérique Duvernois also were significant sources of help.

Throughout my time in France, I have often thought of my French teachers, all the way back to high school, when Daniel Chishom and I jumped up and down in a hallway together to celebrate, in surprise, that I actually had passed an Advanced Placement exam. Amy Wyngaard at Syracuse University helped turn my suspect language skills into real fluency. With these skills I was able to conduct crucial field research in France, including interviews with Elizabeth Gozzo of Association Thanks GIs in Lorraine, and Maurice Dreclerc of the Franco-American Association in the Var. Similarly, Marie and Pierre Hebert were kind gîte hosts in Draguignan. Other valuable French research connections during this time include Véronique Dore-Deflaux, Pierre Deflaux, Daniel Royot, and Gérard Hugues. Linda and Ted Hall remain unfaltering and lovely friends, offering insight to many discussions about art, art criticism, life, and loss.

A 2009–2010 Terra Foundation for American Art Predoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) gave me much needed time to write. I offer deep thanks to my advisors, George Gurney and the late Cindy Mills, for their friendship, exemplary scholarship, and thoughtful mentoring. I am grateful for the opportunity to have co-chaired a session at the 2012 College Art Association with Cindy on landscapes of memory. At SAAM, Amelia Goerlitz provided steady leadership, and I am fortunate to have her as a colleague now at the Smithsonian. While at SAAM, the other fellows created an extraordinary community, and I am grateful for their lasting friendship.

Others who helped with crucial research endeavors include: Marisa Bourgoin at the Archives of American Art; Doug Litts, former director of the National Portrait Gallery Library; Sue Kohler at the Commission of Fine Arts; Nancy Hadley at the American Institute of Architects; the librarians at the Getty Research Center and the Syracuse University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library; Richard Baker at the Army Heritage Museum in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; David Symons, director of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France; Mitch Yokelson at the National Archives II, College Park, Maryland; David Knapp and Barry Eisewerth at H2L2 Architecture Firm in Philadelphia; D. Roger Howlett at Childs Gallery in Boston; Becky Webb at the Rush County Historical Society in Indiana; Avis Bohlen, daughter of Charles Bohlen; Ned Shenton, son of Robert Shenton; Gene and Virginia Crawford, grandchildren of Eugene Savage; and Michael and Laurie Lazrus, grandchildren of John F. Harbeson.

Concentrated time in Normandy was essential to complete the research necessary for this book. In 2011, a Memory and Memorialization fellowship from the Centre nationale de la recherche scientifique, with the support of the Association pour le Rayonnement International, Culturel et Scientifique du Mémorial de Caen, provided me crucial time and funding for field research. For this opportunity, I thank Ed Berenson, Denis Peschanski, and Stéphane Grimaldi. At the Mémorial, Stéphane Simonnet, former director of scientific research, and archivist Marie-Claude Berthelot were both enormously helpful with my research endeavors and remain important friends. Marie-Claude Berthelot especially should be recognized for her wonderful, knowledgeable tours of the region. In Bayeux, Liliane Bouillon-Pasquet warmly welcomed me to the archives of the Comité du Débarquement/D-Day Commemoration Committee and always availed herself to help me track down information.

Grateful thanks to the delightful Bouffard sisters of Hiesville, Manche, Agnès and Brigitte, who have become like aunts. The Bouffards helped me make important connections in Quibou and with the Renaud family in Sainte-Mère-Église. I thank Sandrine Cap and Marion Barnéoud-Rousset for their warm, fun friendship in Caen. Sandrine introduced me to her grandparents in Brittany who lived through the war as adolescents. While in Caen, my host Catherine Goupil arranged several interviews with her father Henry Goupil, who survived the bombardments and near-total destruction of Caen. I thank Jean de Delmandolx of Paris for speaking to me about his role as the French military attaché who welcomed the American delegation of 1964 for the twentieth anniversary of D-Day. Thank you as well to Frank and Tannaz Owczarek for their warm hospitality during the transitions I made between homes, and to Nina Owczarek for reading many different versions of this book as it progressed. Laura Kahle and Conny Laufer-Kahle gave me a home away from home in Berlin and openly spoke to me about the role of Nazis in Germany and the devastation of the war. Laura’s enthusiasm and pride in the German 2006 World Cup victory helped me to realize that this was the first time Germans openly waved their national flag since the war.

A 2011–2012 postdoctoral fellowship at the Emily Landau Center for the Study of American Modernism at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, also gave me singular time and space for writing. The head of the Research Center, Eumie Imm Stroukouff; former director Barbara Buhler Lynes; and Associate Curator Carolyn Kastner made this year a wonderful experience, as did the other fellows. My friendship with artist Romi Sloboda continues to help me keep an eye on contemporary art related to memory.

In 2014, Auburn University Montgomery supported the field research I conducted in Normandy during the seventieth anniversary of D-Day; for this opportunity, I would like to thank Debra Tomblin, Mark Benson, Michael Burger, and Joe M. King. While in Normandy, it was a privilege to make friends with Norwood Thomas, who retains the charm of a young paratrooper. His light-hearted and humble demeanor belies the medals he earned for bravery during harsh combat fighting. His son, Steve Thomas, made heroic efforts to facilitate his father’s pilgrimage, and I am grateful to him.

Many scholars in the field took time to listen to me wrestle with the intersections of art, memory, and diplomacy. Jacqueline Hylkema invited me to participate in a fascinating conference on American bodies in Europe at Leiden University. Wolfgang Tönnesmann and Werner Kremp asked me to speak at the Atlantische Akademie Rheinland-Falz, where I met NATO officers and members of the Volksbund Deutsches Kriegsgräberfürsorge, Sektion Hessen. I thank Erika Doss, Jennifer Greenhill, and Sarah Lea Burns for the opportunity to share some of my work and receive feedback at the dynamic 2013 Newberry Library Seminar in American Art and Visual Culture. In 2014 Christian Fuhrmeister and Kai Kappel led a fascinating colloquium on War Graves, War Cemeteries, and War Shrines at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. Cathy Gorn and Lynne O’Hara continue to provide me with an important opportunity to share and receive feedback from high school participants in the National History Day. I also heard important points of view from military personnel at conferences at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England. Similarly, grateful thanks to Colonel Michelle Rausch Ewy for the invitation to speak to the Air Command Staff College at Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base. I found the international points of view and feedback helpful at the Heidelberg University Center for American Studies’ Spring Academy. Jody Patterson thoughtfully organized a study day in collaboration with Laboratoire InTRu and the Terra Foundation for American Art, where I learned much from others participants. Other scholars whose support I appreciate include Alice Kaplan, James Mayo, Jonathan H. Ebel, Patrick Hagopian, Karen Heath, Wayne Craven, John P. Bowles, Michael Panhorst, Birgit Urmson, Michael Dolski, Steve Bourque, David Livingstone, Rick Herrera, Luc Capdevila, Henry Rousso, and Olivier Wiewiorka. From 2012–2013, research assistance from Nicole Vance at Brigham Young University was impeccable, and I am grateful for supportive BYU colleagues Kristin Matthews, David Amott, Marian Wardle, and Christiane Ramsey. Similarly, colleagues at Auburn University Montgomery and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts followed my work, including Margaret Lynne Ausfeld, Parfait Bonkoungou, Breuna Baine, Dana Bice, Heidi Lingamfelter Almosara, Michael P. Fitzsimmons, and Lee A. Farrow. I also wish to thank the students at Indiana University, Brigham Young University, and Auburn University Montgomery for their thoughtful questions and ideas about memorials.

I express genuine admiration to Sarah Lea Burns. Sarah is a gifted professor, writer, and scholar. Sarah also exemplifies generosity in scholarship, and she models the kind of writer I would like to be. I am glad to say that we have become, over the course of this book, and all that life has brought with it, great friends. I am grateful for her support.

Stages of this book were improved with generous and judicious feedback from John Bodnar, Kirk Savage, Elizabeth Grossman, David C. Ward, Linda Hall, and Sam Edwards. The blind reviewers of this manuscript’s final revisions were both generous and insightful, and I owe them deep thanks. I also very much appreciate the guidance and collegiality from Steven Trout—the editor of the War, Memory, and Culture series at the University of Alabama Press—as well as the guidance from Dan Waterman, the editor-in-chief at the University of Alabama Press; his assistant, Kristen Hop; the designer, Michele Myatt Quinn; the project editor, Jon Berry; and the copyeditor, Meg Olsen.

Personal stories of war made the writing of this book deeply moving. Frank Whitmarsh of the United States Army told me about being so cold during the Battle of the Bulge that his coat, when placed on the ground, kept his form and could stand up without him in it. He described that only way to keep the rifles working in those conditions was to make good use of urine. I will not forget his deep emotion when he told me about seeing his best friend die during the one horrible night of shelling during the Battle of the Bulge. For their insightful interviews, I also thank veteran of the British Armed Forces Guy Dunham and a member of the French Resistance, Angelin German of Draguignan. American veterans Bill Galbraith, Leslie Palmer Cruise Jr., and Jack Sandwith related difficult experiences from their time as American GIs in war. Similarly, Lynne Pett and her daughter Lauren helped me understand the heavy grief of the next of kin families. Lauren’s interest in my book also demonstrates how the grief passes from generation to generation. I appreciate their time in thinking deeply about their family history and reflecting on the loss of a beloved uncle during D-Day. Caen resident and former Résistante Colette Marin-Catherine spoke to me about her difficult war experiences, including surviving bombardment, fighting with the Resistance, and the anticlimactic feeling for Norman women when they (along with all French women) were granted the right to vote in 1946. Her older brother Jean-Pierre Catherine was arrested by the Gestapo for singing La Marseillaise in the streets of Caen. The loss of him haunts her to this day, in part because the location of his grave is unknown. I hope that I have honored the deeply moving experiences of these generous people and their families in the pages of this book.

I must express my respect and pride for one final combat-experienced soldier, John Clarke Lemay. He rarely describes the traumatic moments, but we know he lost many friends, survived rocket-propelled grenade attacks, and eventually turned to a deeply spiritual understanding of