The National D-Day Memorial

This past weekend was Family Weekend at Virginia Tech. As this is my son's second year, we did all of the "family stuff" last year. As the Cadets' Pass In Review was late this year (1100) we didn't have time to get to Danville for the AAF Tank Museum, so he took us to the National D-Day Memorial (http://www.dday.org/). Here's a short tour:
The Memorial is planned out such that you follow the progress of OVERLORD from planning -> landing -> push inland -> liberation of Paris.
You start with The Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Gen. Eisenhower..
Over Eisenhower's head is a mosaic of the landing plan....
The General is overloking an English garden that pays tribute to the headquarters they used in England:
The garden is planted to represent the SHAEF Shield:
As you make your way up the stairs to the Gray Plaza, you pass by the plaques honoring the brave men from VPI (VA Tech) and VMI who have served this Country throughout the years, especially on D-Day:
I could take no photo that did Gray Plaza's vastness justice. The western wall lists all of the American fighters that never made it off the beach:
The eastern wall pays tribute to the fighters of the other Allied forces:
At the far end of the eastern wall were seven plaques describing the "Widows & Mothers" medals awarded by some of the allies to families of those left behind:
Now you come to the center piece of the memorial; the Landing Tableau:






What I could not capture is that there are nozzles placed just under the water that fire a burst of compressed air to simulate the enemy fire striking the water. The landing soldiers are making for The Wall, a sculpture meant to evoke the terrible struggle these brave men faced in their mission:

Now it's time to go up to the Eustace Plaza that surrounds the OVERLORD Vicory Arch - on the way - say "Hi!" to the Grasshopper - an observation plane:

Once on the plaza, you see the first soldier over the top of The Wall;Directly behind him you can see the Gray Plaza and the Greek Dome from the first couple of pictures. Gray Plaza is divided into five zones to represent the five beach heads; which were....?
Under the OVERLORD Victory Arch is a reminder of the cost:
The Memorial if full of symbolism. The Victory arch is topped by alternating black & white stripes such as were painted on the wings of the allied planes. The height of the Arch is described as "66 feet, 44 inches."
Marking the transition from the landing to the push inland is this powerful sculpture:
From there you walk down a Parade that is meant to represent the many plazas and aveneus that the Allies passed through while liberating Europe. The Parade ends in a Tribute to all those wounded in all of America's Military Actions:
Well, this went on much too long. Anyway - I hope you enjoyed the mini-tour. Please visit the web site for operating hours. If you stopped to read every plaque in the place - count on being there three hours or more.