Doughboy tour

869 Views | 0 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by JABQ04
30wedge
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Last month I spent almost two weeks in France and Belgium on a tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War. I learned a lot of things about the war and about our involvement. It is hard for me to give even an ounce of praise to most agencies of the federal government but the American Battle Monuments Commission is an exception. Those cemeteries (we visited several) are pristine beyond description and every one of the cemetery supervisors seemed like guys you wouldn't mind sharing a foxhole with. So many highlights but the one I enjoyed most was the Menin Gate ceremony that is held every night (since 1929, I think) at 8pm. That alone was worth the cost of the trip.

There were 38 of us on the tour and most of us had grandfathers (one older woman's father had fought in World War I) or great uncles who were doughboys. As we would go from place to place, I thought about how cool it was that many had showed up to see for themselves, and to honor the boys, who fought in that war a hundred years ago. I never met my grandfather, he died while my father was fighting on Saipan years before I was born, but to go to the places where he saw action was so cool.
JABQ04
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AG
I want to visit Menin Gate badly. It's a shame WWI doesn't get near enough attention that it deserves.
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