Debate Team Trip: Night Three: Birmingham Alabama

We were able to sleep in a little today :) The D-Day Memorial did not open till 10:00 AM. We got up, packed, and had breakfast. Ms. Edwards promised me that I could be in some pictures today.

So....Bedford Virginia....a small town....why would this town have such an amazing monument you might ask yourself. Ms. Edwards was lucky enough to stumble onto this monument while traveling around Virginia last summer. The reason why this amazing monument is in this small town is because of the sacrifice that the boys of Bedford gave during WWII. (Especially on D-Day). 30 Bedford boys were part of Company A of the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day. The Division was created on February 3, 1941. D-Day occurred on June 6, 194 . Other Bedford boys were located in other units. Company one went in at Omaha Beach. Out of those 30 boys, 19 were killed on the first day. 4 more Bedford boys would die during the campaign in Normandy. Bedford's population at that time was around 3,200. Beford, Virginia suffered the deadliest D-Day losses in the country. Below are some pictures of the Memorial.

We had a guided walking tour of the Memorial. The students picked up a few new vocabulary words for their files. We have heard a lot of the following since the tour ended.
A. So to speak
B. To put it mildly
C. Mosey on

It is amazing how quickly they picked up these words and are now using them constantly :)

Here is a sampling of the different plaques that appeared throughout the Memorial. They have a book in the bookstore that has every plaque in it. There just wasn't enough time to stop at each plaque and be able to read them.

Ms. Edwards promised that I could finally have my picture taken for my blog. Here I am at the start of our tour. The arch in back says Overlord on it. Overlord was the code name for the D-day invasion in Normandy by the allied forces.


Here is a picture of an English styled garden. Around the garden were the different commanders who lead during the invasion of Normandy. In the doomed structure is a statute of General Eisenhower. The military personal under his command were Bernard Law Montgomery (British), Omar Bradley (American), Trafford Leigh-Mallory (British), Arthur Tedder (British), Miles Dempsey (British), and Bertram Ramsay (British) In the middle of the garden is a sword with fire around the edges. The flowers that you can just barely see represent the shield that the men received for fighting in this battle.

Trafford Leigh-Mallory will not survive the war. He was killed when his plane crashed over the French Alps.

Bertram Ramsay was also killed during the war. He was killed when his plane crashed on takeoff.

Here is a picture of Monty and myself.....what do you think? Monty

Here is a copy of the SHAEF patch. SHAEF stand for Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.


Here is another view of the arch. The flags around the arch represent the different countries that fought on the side of the Allies. Two of the flags are no longer accurate. The Canadian flag was changed and Czechoslovakia which is no longer a country.



Here is a side view of the arch. If you look carefully in the water you can see statutes of soldiers as they try and storm the beaches. There were six beaches that were invaded on that day (Gold, Sword, Omaha, Juno, Pointe du Hoc, and Utah) Each of these names was a code name created by the Americans, British and French.


One more view of the arch from a different direction.


Here is a picture of me and one of the soldiers who was trying to storm the defenses of the beach.

The Memorial was once again an amazing place to visit. I saw a program on CNN a few weeks ago about how this memorial is in danger. It is not a national memorial and so is supported by visitors and donors. The problem is that the people who donate are dying because they are the ones who vote in WWII. I hope that something is done to save this amazing memorial so that future generations can visit and remember what these men sacrificed.

I made a little bit of a splash at the memorial....people asked the students about me and I believe that my picture was taken by a few of the other guest as well.....guess it is because I am so photogenic.

Our tour guide recommended a really really good restaurant in town that we should have lunch at before leaving town. He mentioned that it used to be part of a train depot and that of course caught Mr. Conant's attention.


Here is a picture of the restaurants sign. The kids loved the restaurant....especially the mashed potatoes. If possible I think they would have taken home a bucket for left overs. I must admit that they were pretty tasty. We had an amazing waitress and everyone who spoke with us gave us that famous southern hospitality. Totally different from what you get in some northern restaurants. The kids loved the restaurant so much that they asked to go back on the way home....unfortunately it is not on our return route home....potatoes might be worth the detour though.


Here is a picture of the outside of the restaurant. Ms. Edwards and Mr. Conant each purchased glasses from the Liberty Station. They are glass...I think I better stay away from them.

Here is a picture of some old fashioned cards that were parked outside of the restaurant...they don't make them like these any more.


Here is a picture of a train bridge that was near the restaurant. We saw a train go by while we were taking group pictures...if u want to see those pictures you will have to ask Ms. Edwards to show you her snapfish.com book.

So....we left the restaurant and Bedford Virginia around 1:00 PM. Our goal was to reach Birmingham Alabama. We drove from 1 to about 10 PM with a few stops in between. At one of the stops we went to the visitors center in Tennessee. Across from the center was this huge....and I mean huge guitar. A picture of it appears below.


We also stopped for dinner at a Subway....the girls in the car with Mr. Conant and Ms. Edwards would say Subway after every sign they saw before we finally stopped....do you know how many subways they have down here?

For those of you keeping track...today we drove through Virginia of course, Tennessee, Georgia (which surprised everyone) and finally Alabama. Did you know that Alabama is in a different time zone.....Ms. Edwards and Coty were really surprised to discover that they had gained an hour....the GPS system didn't change though...cell phone did.....course this means that they will lose an hour when we head home on Friday.


Here is a picture that Ms. Edwards took outside the hotel room in Birmingham.....Ok joking...this is actually a winter picture from where Ms. Edwards and I live....I just wanted to add a little cold to the blog....it is HOT HOT HOT and humid down here.