Trip is reminder that freedom is not free
DOMINIC WILEY PHOTO
Dominic Cian Wiley exeriences the calm of Normandy Beach - 80 years after the invasion that saw thousands of lives lost on that very beach.
The full reality of a history lesson came to fruition for Dominic Cian Wiley, 16, Holton, and several other students from South Ripley when they recently visited Normandy Beach in France. The students were part of a group that went for the 80th Anniversary of that reminder that freedom costs dearly.
The grandson of a Vietnam Navy Veteran, the late Jack Wiley and Shelba Wiley of Holton, Dominic has always had a connection to the military. His parents are Kevin and Tammy Wiley, also of Holton.
Dominic was just a freshman when he heard of the trip being offered by history teacher, Zach Bosell. “I didn’t think I’d get the chance to go,” he told The Versailles Republican. He is a huge history buff and deep down really wanted to experience history firsthand, but it was a lot of money. He said a “good many” of his ancestors were warriors.
“History is important to me…it should be to everyone,” Dominic noted. He referred to the quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” and said, “It’s cliché’, but maybe true.”
The highlight of the trip for Dominic was Normandy Beach. Peaceful, serene, nostalgic, poignant, with the cold air on his face and the sea water on his tongue, he said he will never be the same. “I don’t feel the same,” he noted, continuing, “I’m very grateful for it.”
Knowing that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost that day 80 years ago at the same beach he now could find calming, Dominic said it was an impactful moment to feel the souls that have died for freedom. “I’ve always been appreciative of our independence,” he noted, saying now it is now in bold color.
Dominic wasn’t as impressed with Paris. “There were too many people,” he noted. While he enjoyed history sites they visited, he felt the crowds pressing in. He enjoyed seeing the palace where King Louie 14th bankrupted France with the dazzling beauty of gold that drapes the magnificent architecture. He walked to the second level of the Eiffel Tower that gave him a good vantage point across the area and saw Napoleon’s Arc de Triomph, an equivalent to our Tomb of the Unknown.
In Amsterdam, the Anne Frank House elicited sad response from Dominic as he couldn’t imagine whole families getting on a train and never being seen again. The magnitude of the Holocaust was almost too much as he thought about the horrific things those people endured after they left their homes because they were simply Jews.
In the harbor of Amsterdam Dominic experienced a tour boat ride. He pointed out they saw a boat, the Caravel, that was the same style that Christopher Columbus sailed into America.
“This trip changed my life,” Dominic concluded. He said he will continue to be patriotic – even when he doesn’t “like the government” too much right now.
