Randy,
If you ever make it over to Europe, make it a must to visit Normandy and take advantage of a battlefield tour with these guys. Small groups, an impressively knowledgeable local guide, who will also find you exactly the accomodation you specify. The tours are a whole day and he knows the location of so many bunkers and sites of actions you would never have any hope of finding. After the Le Mans Classic, i'm taking some American friends there on the way back to the UK. Even the women will love the 'human interest' stories he will narrate you. So much stuff is now on private land, that this is the only way you will ever get to see it.
Overlordtour : battlefield tour in Normandy, D-Day Beaches, 6 june 1944 history, D-Day commemoration
Prior to Le Mans, i'm travelling further south to attend a ceremony held every year for my Mother's uncle. Every year a sizeable proportion of the small town meet at the church and hold a service in his honour. They then walk to the local cemetry and the Mayor holds a small ceremony to lay wreaths.
When his body was recovered, a local French family took it upon themselves to bury him in the family vault.
If you read the link below, you will see he was murdered by the SD, the security police of the Waffen SS, under the 'Kommando Order' issued by Hitler.
Whereby any special forces/parachute soldiers even if captured in uniform, where not to be treated as pow's, but executed. I believe some of your 82nd and 101st Airborne met a similar fate in Normandy.
I've found a copy of a poem i like, and this will appear with my floral tribute in both English & French.
' Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush.
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.'
After some research i also found this post :
Its worth reading both the replies on the post.
Lt Tomas (Twm) Mansell Stephens, Commandos & SAS