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“
we found ourselves
on the sacred sands
of Omaha Beach by
the dawn
’
s early
light.
”
current or former members of the
Lycoming College Board of Trustees.
The group had begun their trip
in London, touring the Houses of
Parliament and Churchill’s Cabinet
War Rooms, before heading to the
D-Day museum in Portsmouth and
boarding a ferry for Normandy.
Over the next four days, we
crisscrossed the Calvados and
Cotentin regions, visiting the
sites where British and American
Airborne troops landed, the beaches
where Allied forces fought their way
ashore, and the bunkers where the
enemy struck back. Everywhere we
went the roads were packed with re-
enactors in painstakingly-restored
WWII vehicles. Allied flags and
“
Our D
-
Day adventure gave me a welcome opportunity to give
something back to the college that gave me so much
”
included conducting a
retirement ceremony for
Captain John H. Lea, III, a
1980 Lycoming graduate who
had gone on to become one of
the senior leaders in the U.S.
Navy’s Chaplain Corps. Jack
wanted to retire on Omaha Beach
at H-Hour on D-Day. How could I
possibly say “no”?
That’s how I wound up hopping
on a bullet train for Paris in early June
with two large flagpoles protruding
from my luggage. I worked my way
from Gare de l’Est to Gare St. Lazare
and continued on to Caen to link up
with Bob and Mike and their band
of 30 history lovers, including six
of Bob’s former students and four
31
www.lycoming.eduF E AT U R E S
29th Infantry Division
veterans and
re-enactors retake
Omaha Beach on
June 6, 2014.