Day 5 in Paris, Part One: Friday in Suresnes

Our day began with a trip to the American Cemetery in Suresnes, just on the western outskirts of Paris. We began in the office of the site overseer. We were given a brief presentation about the history of the cemetery and memorial as well as some of the people buried there.

This was a solemn experience to honor the lives of Oklahoma soldiers buried on French soil --- part of the ongoing Oklahoma Soldiers Project which Madame and her students have been working on for several years. Please help us honor these soldiers whose lives were far too short and whose courage and sacrifice humbles us all. You can begin to do this by thoughtfully reviewing these images:

   

We honored the graves of the 15 soldiers from Oklahoma buried in this cemetery:

Grant A. Jarman

Frank Kamm

Barney Sammons

John N. D. Boyd

 Grover Foster

 Charlie Hays

John A. Butler

 Robert Y. Price

John Murphy

Sidney H. Pickett

Ira A. Gray

 

Harmon Maxwell Gore

 

Joseph Cobb

[more to be added as the pictures get sent to Madame by those who went to the cemetery.]

We also honored the names of soldiers from Oklahoma whose names appear on the tablets of the missing (usually missing at sea). These tablets hang inside the chapel at this cemetery:

Casey Lonzo

Fred E. Wood

Charles H. Fisher

Manuel Shaw

Jess C. Michael

The American Cemetery and Memorial at Suresnes is the only such cemetery to serve for both of the World Wars. 

Visiting this cemetery, honoring these soldiers' lives, and pausing to reflect on the immense loss for their families and communities was a very sad and poignant experience for us all:

From the cemetery, there are views of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower.