Pointe de Hoc shrine to be rededicated 6 June.

[K.Ingraham]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/06/a ... y-060311w/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pointe de Hoc shrine to be rededicated Monday
By Pierre Tran - Defense News
Posted : Friday Jun 3, 2011 12:29:29 EDT

PARIS — More than 40 D-Day veterans accompanied by American and French officials will attend Monday’s rededication of the Pointe de Hoc site stormed by U.S. Army Rangers on the Normandy cliffs, the American Battle Monuments Commission said in a statement.

The World War II veterans will commemorate the Pointe de Hoc Ranger monument, which reopened in March. Cliff erosion forced closure of the historic site 10 years ago.

Family members of the late James Earl Rudder, D-Day commander of the 2nd Rangers Battalion, are due to attend, along with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., U.S. ambassador Charles Rivkin, French undersecretary to the minister for national education Jeanette Bougrab and other officials.

A U.S. Congress vote for $4.8 million allowed the monuments commission to stabilize the cliff and the German observation bunker on which the Ranger monument sits.

“The 155mm guns of Pointe du Hoc could have devastated the American beaches on D-Day had the Rangers not been successful,” said former Sen. Max Cleland, American Battle Monuments Commission secretary, in a statement released Friday. “We couldn’t allow this historic site and the courage and sacrifice it represents to be lost to future generations.”

[Ranger Ron]

Sure need to go there one day. I have some sand off the beach that my little brother brought me but need to stand there myself.