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October 6, 2009 // Margraten, The Netherlands American Cemetery

Up at 8:30, kinda slow going we don’t get out of Eindhoven until about 10:50. Of course it was raining again. Late, we started heading down to the American Cemetery in the Netherlands near Margraten. Luckily our contact Ronald Stassen was also running late. We arrived 5 minutes before he did. What a great guy. He showed us around every where and was very patient with us as we documented the things we wanted. Visited the wall maps then onto Harry’s name on the Wall of the Missing. It was very special to see Harry’s name on the wall with a marking indicating that his remains had been located. Dave met and interviewed a young couple who has adopted four soldier’s graves. Two in Margraten and two in the Ardennes.

Ronald got a key from the head manager at the Cemetery which gave us access to the memorial tower. The view from the top was spectacular and humbling. The rain let up while we were on the tower and for a little while during our time at the cemetery. Walking down and around on the other side of the tower was the cemetery chapel. A simple and appropriate interior. Finally we made our way to the graves. Rows upon rows of head stones laid out in perfect lines creating a sobering reverence for the sacrifice given by so many. Luckily the rain had let up for a little bit and we didn’t have to deal with that. Ronald then showed us to a few of the graves he has adopted. He and other country men have adopted every single soldier at Margraten. They come and lay flowers and flags on special occasions such as Memorial Day and the soldiers birthdays. Ronald also plants a 101st Airborne flag at each grave of division members on Memorial Day. Ronald had us met one of the cemetery directors, and they had me sign the book of family members.

Ronald had to leave us and we thanked him for going above and beyond. Dave and I still had a few shots I wanted to get so we took off our jackets and walked back into the cemetery area. 10 minutes later the rain really started and we just had to get back in the car. Fortunately we had already gotten almost everything we wanted.

Back in the hotel we took the time to upload some of the raw media we had taken. Then we took a walk into the Eindhoven city center for dinner. So after two long days and a big travel day coming up I was ready to go to bed.

A Tribute from Aaron Walser on Vimeo.

A brief tribute to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
(Music – No Place Like Home by Michael Giacchino)

October 5, 2009 // Amsterdam + Opheusden, The Netherlands
65 Years to the day since Harry’s death.

Wow, what an incredible day.
Left the Rembrant Classic after a nice breakfast. Taxi to Airport on a wing and a prayer. LUGGAGE FOUND. Clothes for Dave and a lens for the Nikon. Finally! And there was much rejoicing. High-fives all around even for the elegant KLM lady. Train to Amsterdam Centraal. Train to Eindhoven. Taxi to Hertz Rental. Drive rental to Hotel. (That’s right I am driving in Europe.) Check into the Sophitel Eindhoven. Way nicer than the Rembrant Classic, unfortunately the room smells like a 3 day old fart. Don’t care, already late. Call Bernard Flourissen; he says it is still ok.

Drive to Opheusden. (Love the GPS!) Starts to rain pretty good. Greeted in Opheusden by seven new Dutch friends. Bernard Flourissen, and Friend, Coby de Hartog and Friend, Karl Huibers, Evert Huibers, and Friend. Two actual WWII Jeeps. After a little emotional meeting—I am such a big cry baby, think I am being karma cursed by Grandma Weezie for making fun of her for always crying about this stuff—we jump into the Jeeps and head out to the location of the Aid Station. Filming conditions are bad, the rain is really hampering any sense of calm. Additionally the emotions are making it hard to think straight about what I want out of this visually. I did remember to get the “Putting Faces to Names” shot done so at least I got that. I will be surprised if I have more than 30 seconds of useful footage on my 63 minute tape. Thank heavens for Dave Reed who was Johnny on the Spot and took all kinds of great shots and video.

Then we crossed the tracks and headed down the road about a mile and a half, crossed back over the tracks and took a hard left. Drove across some fields till we arrived at the place were Karel found Harry’s remains. I took a soil sample and did some interviews. (I will add more from the interviews when I have a chance, lots of confirmations of information and some new information and some theories and some debunked theories etc.) Soon Karel, his son and their friend had to go, I thanked them and got some address updates.

Bernard and the Crew then drove us around Opheusden in the jeeps to visit various sites made famous via old photos and fighting. Bernard and his friend had to go to Bernard’s anniversary party at around 4:30 PM. We said our goodbyes and gave them many thanks as they drove off in those beautiful old jeeps. I want one.

Coby de Hartog invites us and her friend to come back to her apartment to chat and enjoy some snacks. Dave and I were very grateful for the snacks and for the conversation. We so enjoyed asking them questions about their lives during the war. Coby was only 17 at the time and still has some vivid memories of the war.

At 18:30 we drove back to Opheusden City Hall to meet with Evert van Garderen. Evert was born and raised in Opheusden and is now a Doctor of Veterinarian Pathology. He drove us around to some great sites and also showed us the dike on the river Neder-Rijn north of Opheusden. Then we had a very pleasant conversation over a splendid dinner. He gave me a gift to give to Rodney—The Band of Brothers DVD with Dutch subtitles— so cool. For dinner I had the Devil Chicken, very good yum. Still raining and now very dark he drove us back to our car and we said our good-byes. We drove back to Eindhoven, had some really quick chats on Skype with the families, downloaded some images from the day and crashed out from 00:30 AM until 8:30 AM.

October 3+4, 2009 // Washington, D.C. to Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Left Dulles on KLM around 6:30 PM October 3, 2009
Arrived in Amsterdam 8:00 AM October 4, 2009
Actual flight time approx. 7:30 hrs

I learned that even when you get seats assigned online, always check them at the counter or at the self-check in. Never believe the computer. I had an isle according to the computer at home and got stuck in the middle seat when I looked at my ticket while boarding. Luckily my seat neighbor wanted to sit next to her husband, who had an isle seat one row behind, so after some musical chairs everyone was happy. Except maybe the husband. I didn’t sleep a wink the entire flight. I was too excited.

Upon arrival passport control and customs was a very simple and painless process. However we had a major hitch, Dave’s luggage never showed. We waited for an hour and finally filed a complaint. After getting the paperwork for Dave’s lost luggage sorted out we headed off to the Rembrant Classic Hotel in the city center of Amsterdam. It was about 9:00 AM still and so there were no rooms cleaned yet. The desk clerk, a swarthy jerk compared to all the Dutch folks I had met so far, told us to come back at 2:00 to see what he could do for us.

We left our bags and headed out to explore Amsterdam. What a magnificent city, the architecture is so rich and different than any city I have been in. Of course I was reminded of other European city’s by the narrow alleys and close quarters but the facades, colors and the open canals all blended together to create something new and unique. I was falling in love and I couldn’t help myself. Being a Sunday morning not much was open, we had breakfast in a bar that consisted of a light ham and cheese pannini style sandwich and a slice of Apple Pie washed down with fresh orange juice. Ah the breakfast of champions! We toured lovely downtown Amsterdam on foot and scouted out the train station. At lunch time when we tried a restaurant touting itself as Argentine. Having lived in Argentina for two year I can safely say the only thing Argentine about the food was the name, and the fact that they served steak.

After lunch we continued the search via phone and internet for Dave’s luggage, no luck. Took a 2 hour nap. Hit the town that night to see the sights and Dave bought a change of clothes for the next day. We enjoyed a lovely restaurant that evening where I had my first good meal in two days of travel. It was also my first experience with Dutch style fries. I had heard they used some sort of mayo instead of ketchup, but I didn’t know they ate so much mayo with their fries. They brought me a whole bowl of mayo. Goo! Luckily it was one the side and no, I didn’t eat all of it. We ended our evening with even more unsuccessful bag hunting and some phone calls home before hitting the sack.