Yesterday I was driving to Epinel, France. I hadn't been there and was on that side of the Vosge mountains so I decided to travel up (actually down the Moselle River - it flows north like the Rhine) As I was driving I saw small sign that said American Cemetery. So I took the off ramp and drove up the hill. Arriving at the gates it was a bit of a shock - going from a dirty French road to a manicured driveway through tall pine trees.
Driving into the empty parking lot, all I heard was the wind. There was no one else there. It was quite unsettling. Walking to the large, white marble building, I was struck how clean everything was. And it was big. You can't see the crosses until you walk to the front of the monument. And there are a lot of crosses-5,225 in fact. The cemetery is for those Americans killed primarily from the 7th Army that moved from the south of France. There are four Congressional Medal of Honor recipients buried there.
After all of my time here, I had never heard of this cemetery. It was very poignant to walk through and see the names of the American's killed and even more so, the towns in Alsace where they were killed.
Memorial building
Thousands of marked graves
360 degree view
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