In my fondest memories of all those trips over there, is the way the people react to us. Not only in Normandy, where they will greet you often or in our case, bought our coffee for us, like we were the actual liberators. But also on my WWI gig. Randomly people just come up and thank us. Hell, I had several retired Marines with me when I went up to get a carnet for the metro from an attendant and she asked, "you are an American veteran?" I said, "not me but all of those guys behind me are US Marines". She thanked them all profusely, right in the heart of busy Paris.

My dad and I did an add-on piece for one of the WWI tours and we went to Bastogne. One of our guys was wearing his veteran hat as we were walking around the town square. A younger guy is on his balcony, sees the hat and starts yelling "the Americans are here". He runs into his condo and comes out waving an American flag.

When I was in Normandy, they had on display a piece of artwork that one of the local school children had done and won a contest with. It was a sculpture of an American soldier with his parachute open. At the bottom of the sculpture it's entitled, "the day they came". Still brings a little tear to my eye.