The Lakeville North High School Chorale was extremely fortunate to tour Paris and Normandy during our spring break (which also happened to be Holy Week.) While I’m going to spare you all the details of the entire trip, I think you need to know about our time singing in Normandy - especially singing at the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach.

We had just enjoyed three fabulous days in Paris, and had traveled to Normandy on our fourth day. We woke up the morning of our fifth day and proceeded to the Peace Museum in Caen. This was a very moving tribute to the events of D-Day, and in particular, a movie that used actual footage to chronicle the minute by minute events leading up to the actual landing at Omaha Beach. This movie footage was also remarkable in that it showed both the American and the German troops going through their preparations (the Germans thinking it was basically another day like any other.)

After viewing this very intense documentary of the D-Day events, we proceeded to the American Cemetery. Now, you need to know that I had prepared the students about the overwhelming scene they were going to witness- row after row after row of white crosses- each representing a young American soldier that had died.

We arrived at the cemetery about thirty minutes before we were to participate in a wreath laying ceremony and then sing. During those thirty minutes, I saw many of our students hugging each other, comforting each other - the significance of the American soldiers’ sacrifices had all of a sudden become very real to them.

A few thoughts that became clear to our students included the fact that these crosses were markers of young men that had died - young men that were virtually the SAME AGE as my high school senior boys. The other fact that became clear was the incredible bravery that those young men had- when you sit on the cliffs at Omaha Beach and look down and see a wide open space of beach- and realize those young men had to cross that stretch of sand knowing that their chances of surviving were not going to be good.

The students walked down to the water and were amazed to see various debris from the landing still in the water. They looked up at the cliffs from the beach, and saw thick underbrush and remnants of a German cement bunker- and realized that was the view that the D-Day soldiers saw.

The wreath laying took place, and it was time to sing. I saw the heart-wrenching looks on my students’ faces, and knew this would be a moment I would never forget. We began to sing…”my country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty”…..and I was completely overcome with emotion, as were the singers. None of us will ever sing that familiar song again without having an immediate flashback to that moment of deep understanding of what our freedom really means.

After we finished our set of songs, the students were comforting each other, crying, hugging, talking, and simply looking out at the rows and rows and rows of white crosses.

If we ‘older’ folks ever start to wonder if our younger people really ‘get it’…in other words, do they understand how lucky they are to live where they do? Have no fear- these students that saw the numbers of young men- the same age as them! - that died for freedom….these students will never take their freedom for granted. And they will have a new understanding of what the word ‘patriotism’ means. I was so proud to see my Lakeville North students being so extremely moved by the American Cemetery experience. The future WILL be in good hands.

Paul Wigley
Choir Director
Lakeville North High School