DATELINE: Omaha Beach

It' serenely quiet as I walk the beach at "Bloody Omaha" of Normandy. No seagulls, no voices, just the soft lapping off the English Channel against the beach. It's a rather unremarkable beach as beaches go, and I seen a whole lot of them. Rather it's the remarkable events that started here before dawn 65 years ago that make this place special. Remarkable young men did the unnatural, they poured out of landing craft and plunged into battle, many for the first time and many for their only time. When you see the terrain you can see why it turned into a killing field. At high tide you still have quite a distance to cover to get to the rise of the land from the beach. The berns and hills above Omaha are tall and imposing. Looking at those steep approaches from their landing craft must have caused a fear I can't identify with. The courage to suck it up and burst out of the Higgins boats and dash for the shore took strength and conviction. Many never made it past the lowering of the ramps, yards from shore would be as close as they get before their lives would end. As I leave Omaha I stop to pick up a couple of peices of trash and walk up the short hill the ends at a draw that gives you driving access to Omaha Beach. German tourist look at me in a curious way as I drop the trash in a receptacle near the parking lot. It clear to me that the don't feel that "Bloody Omaha" is sacred ground, every bit as sacred as Gettysburg or Iwo Jima. I say nothing as the tourists fall silent and munch on apples and boot a soccer ball around as I walk past. Perhaps the look on my face said all that needed to be said.