June 6, 1962 - U.S. Ambassador James M. Gavin (pictured in 1944), who landed in France 18 years ago as a paratroop general, led ceremonies today commemorating the D-Day invasion and the 10,000 American soldiers buried in France. Ambassador Gavin visited the military cemetery near the invasion beaches and laid a cornerstone for an American Forces museum at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French village to be liberated. On June 6, 1944, he was deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. Today, he presented the Mayor of the village with the flag of his regiment, the 505th Airborne. “Sainte-Mere-Eglise is proud to be the first village in France to have received the American paratroopers,” Mayor Jean Masselin said. “We consider our town a symbol of the European liberation.” The man who commanded the Allied invasion of Europe, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, spent the morning in Gettysburg working on a book he is writing.
