In June 2014, an 11-year-old boy visited Normandy, France for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. As part of the boy’s personal project, titled “Project Vigil,” this little boy spent four days teaching visitors and tourists about three paratroopers who had been buried in the American Cemetery.
During the official D-Day celebration, local police didn’t allow the boy to enter the cemetery in his WWII-style uniform. So the boy took his American flag down to Omaha Beach and planted it in the sand. Staring out at the ocean, the little boy wanted to thank all the Americans who died 70 years earlier in the fight against fascism and evil.
As the young boy struggled to hold the flag steady in the forceful wind, he suddenly witnessed a vision of American infantry soldiers heading bravely towards their fate on the morning of June 6, 1944. Gazing across the English Channel, and so moved by this vision, he brought up his hand to salute the past.
Standing alone, holding the American flag, this little boy stood firm and held his salute for over an hour and a half. While he continued this vigil, interested tourists, children, veterans, well-wishers and all sorts of people went down to see if the story was true, that on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, there stood a boy and an American flag.
Please watch this heartfelt video of a proud American boy memorializing and honoring our fallen soldiers. And wait for the five-minute mark to see who joined this little boy’s silent watch.
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