More than 100 Hillgrove High School students are in France today, participating in ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.
The students, 90 marching band and 35 orchestra members, performed June 6 in the ceremony marking the D-Day anniversary at Brittany American Cemetery in France. They will also perform today at the Normandy American Cemetery and participate in the D-Day Memorial Parade in St. Mère-Eglise, the Cobb County School District said.
Hillgrove Band Director Patrick Erwin said his students receive invitations throughout the school year to attend various events, many of which they turn down.
Erwin said the band was invited to the 74th anniversary memorial events, but had to refuse because it was too close to its 2016 tour of Beijing and Shanghai.
“On that same call, they went ahead and extended the invitation to the 75th anniversary D-Day event,” he said. “The goosebumps that the staff and I got talking about the trip were enough to say, ‘yes.’”
The Hillgrove band departed the U.S. June 4 and toured Utah and Omaha beaches in France the next day. The students will spend two days in Paris and perform one more time at the Luxembourg Gardens before they return home June 11.
A special guest accompanied the Hillgrove band students on their trip to Normandy. Master Sgt. Victor Walter Graham was part of the 119th Regiment, 30th Infantry, 3rd Battalion, that landed in Normandy in June 1944. He was twice awarded the Purple Heart medal and a Silver Star Medal for his brave actions, the Cobb school district said. Graham, 92 and a resident of Marietta, will also serve as a grand marshal in the parade at St. Mère-Eglise.
“We are forever indebted to them for their help in bringing this hero back to France to celebrate our great victory,” Erwin said.
Read more of the AJC’s D-Day coverage:
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