While Franco-American relations may occasionally seem tepid, the latest monument on the Normandy invasion beaches is promoting fraternité
between the two countries.The U.S. Navy Normandy D-Day Monument, located next to the Utah Beach Landing Museum, pays tribute to the sea service's dedication and sacrifice during the Allies' 6 June 1944 invasion of northwestern Europe and helps correct a historical inequity. The Navy's key role during the operation has generally gone unheralded, and that was nowhere more evident than along the invasion beaches. It was the only participating Allied armed force without even a simple stone column along the coastline to mark its service there.
The 12-foot-high monument's evocative design distinguishes it from the 60-some other, more-conventional D-Day monuments and markers. Atop a four-foot granite base, artist Stephen Spears sculpted three imposing bronze figures—two Sailors and a Navy officer—engaged in separate invasion actions yet working together. At the monument's 27 September 2008 dedication, then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England stated that the Normandy invasion "proved to be the largest operation in human history, and none of it would have been possible without the United States Navy."
For more than four years, the Naval Order of the United States—a veterans' organization dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard—raised money and worked with U.S. and French officials to ensure that the Navy monument became a reality.
The dedication and its related events provided an opportunity for U.S. and French officials and civilians, as well as U.S. Sailors and D-Day veterans, to meet, socialize, and celebrate our countries' long history of friendship. During the dedication ceremony, Henri Milet, mayor of the nearby town of Sainte Marie du Mond, said: "We are proud to donate this land for this great monument and are proud to be its caretakers. We are pleased to tell you today in peace and in full freedom, thank you, and we reassert our commitment to honor your memory so that this friendship between our people long remains."
France's Navy was represented at the ceremony by Admiral Pierre-Fran
ois Forissier, chief of the French Naval Staff, who awarded the Legion of Honor to three U.S. Navy D-Day veterans: retired Captain Richard Zimermann, Jim Gaff, and Chester Collins. A fly-over by French Air Force fighters punctuated the monument's unveiling.Official U.S. representatives at the festivities included musicians of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe Band, who performed at the dedication and also at various locations throughout Normandy in late September. After each concert the musicians spoke with their audiences and answered numerous questions, most often from French children. Sailors from the USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) performed escort and ceremonial duties, conveying the bonhomie characteristic of the young men and women of both the U.S. and French navies.
At a reception following the dedication, Seabees from Naval Forces Europe and The Sullivans' Sailors chatted with Normandy youngsters and their parents. The most heartwarming encounters, however, were between French school children and the eight U.S. Navy D-Day veterans participating in the monument dedication. At Port-en-Bessin third- and fourth-graders presented the vets with handmade greeting cards and shy smiles.
The international goodwill engendered by the Navy memorial spilled over to a 2 March 2009 ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., during which Minister of Defense Herve Morin bestowed the Legion of Honor to Mortimer Caplin, a U.S. Navy beachmaster on Omaha Beach from 7 June to 5 July 1944. Caplin, a former two-time commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and other representatives of the Naval Order presented a bronze miniature of the Navy D-Day Monument to the minister, who thanked the Order for its sponsorship of the Utah Beach memorial.
Tourism, a major industry along the Normandy coast, has been hard-hit by the economic downturn. The Navy monument, however, will hopefully serve as a fiscal "Field of Dreams" and spur visitation to the Utah Beach area.
Regional tourism drops significantly at the end of each September; in Normandy, October, November, and December are the wettest months of the year. But according to Benoît Noël, manager of the Utah Beach Landing Museum, about 29,500 tourists and Normandy residents visited the Utah area in the last three months of 2008—a 34 percent increase over the same period in 2007—no doubt at least partially due to the new memorial.
Noël and Henri Milet agreed that the Navy D-Day Monument will benefit their region of Normandy for decades to come. After acknowledging the severity of economic conditions, the manager added, "that's not the most important factor, because French people are sensitized to our 'duty of remembrance.'"