A Jim Thorpe couple is in the midst of an educational tour to commemorate the 80th anniversary honoring the veterans of D-Day.

Laurie and Michael Mele, who teach at MMI Preparatory School in Freeland, took a trip for the Normandy ceremony as part of the 2024 EF Tour Abroad.

Michael Mele, science instructor/Associate Dean, MMI Preparatory School, and Laurie, who teaches middle school English and art, are on the trip with two other MMI teachers Christina Spencer, who teaches Chinese and Syra Dewar, a Spanish teacher.

There are 27 students and three alumni in the group.

Michael Mele chronicled the series of events that unfolded on Day 4 of the trip on the Facebook private group 2024 EF Tour Abroad.

He said they were on the road early Thursday morning to Colleville sur Mer, a commune in the Calvados department in Normandie region in northwestern France for the 80th commemorative ceremony honoring the veterans of D-Day.

After they stopped briefly to pick up their breakfasts and lunches, he said they were placed in a staging area with other groups where they sat for over an hour while military personnel and dogs searched their bus. From there, they headed for the cemetery in a convoy with police escorts, another long wait in line on narrow winding one-way streets.

About another two hours later, Mele said they inched slowly to the drop off location atop the headlands of Colleville.

“As we sat, we got to see Marine One fly overhead, bringing the president to the ceremony,” Mele said. “As we turned the last s-bend to the top, we stood less than 50 yards from Marine One and Marine Two, along with flanking Chinook helicopters.

“We walked to our seats along the center stage and waited patiently for the ceremony. We were welcomed by military personnel and as the ceremony progressed, we listened to praise given to our remaining D-Day veterans by both President (Joe) Biden and French President Macron, witnessed a moving invocation and salute and the conferring of the Legion of Honor medal to the veterans who attended.”

It was surreal to him.

“It was a day filled with honor, emotion and praise for all veterans, especially those who fought and those who lost their lives on this date 80 years ago,” he said.

“I made this relationship in the moment, that I tend to collect articles of my childhood in an effort to preserve my own past, and not unlike the history of our veterans, acknowledging and sharing their experience gives them longevity well past their natural lives.

He was struck by the selflessness of those who fought. “It’s natural to defend your family and your home, but often rare to extend past those possessions to care for and protect others freedoms. In the same way you would your own.

That, Mele said, got him to thinking.

“I wondered about how much thanks is enough for such a monumental sacrifice? The answer is: there never is enough. No medal, no commendation, no gift, no words, no actions are 100% sufficient. These humble figures in front of me don’t seek that.

“But what do we genuinely owe them? For me, it’s the respect when I see them, the feeling inside to know that I have my life and my freedom because of their actions, the feeling that I could never know what their lives feel like or know that they understand how I feel about them. The humility I have inside wells in the years of pride I’ve accumulated watching them receive a heroes welcome, and the sadness I feel when I walk past the grave sites that they can never know how much I owe them.”

Mele added, “It was a powerful day, and I hope they sleep peaceful knowing they changed the world. The ceremony was incredibly moving, but the impact of the flanking 9,388 crosses was just as great.

“I found it really interesting how perfect their alignment is and how important it was to set that condition. It’s really incredible to see how they not only align longitudinally, but at angles in both directions as well.”

Mele said they walked the lines for hours, reading names and finding some familiar ones and realizing that some are lost in this sea without the finalizing confirmation of a name and an affirmation for a family.

He said they found Robert and Preston Niland, the inspiration for “Saving Private Ryan” and the Roosevelt brothers (Theodore Jr., and Quentin who was a World War I veteran but buried beside his brother in Normandy.)

Laurie’s mother’s uncle, David Kline Sr. from Reading, took part in the landing and invasion, finding himself in those Higgins boats that made the initial attack.

“He fortunately survived, and I know that connection further anneals her emotional bond to the day,” Mele said.

Mele said they walked to the beach headland “and thought of how that fateful day may have looked from that location, and listened to a 21-gun salute along the coastline, a flyover of D-Day era aircraft and a salute from four F-35 advanced fighters.

“We met some new friends and absorbed the moments, culminating in one very memorable, emotional and fulfilling day,” he said. “The downside was the extremely long wait to depart (a wait of over seven hours). “We finally made it back to our hotel at 10 p.m. for sunset and a warm meal of chicken and rice. “We are in great spirits, hopefully thankful for all we have and those we owe, and tired but peaceful. Recharging for another full day (on Friday).”