The American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

This week's Outbound Train is to the American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, a pilgrimage site for many Americans. Perhaps you've seen it on Saving Private Ryan. The cemetery served as the filming location for both the opening and closing scenes.

While the movie shows much of the cemetery, it hardly does justice to its vast size and somber air. The numbers are staggering. 9,387 Americans are buried here. And even though there are other American cemeteries in France, this is the most visited. If you've never been, then you should rent a car and drive up some weekend. You owe it to those who fought, to those who lost their lives and to the next generation.

Finding the cemetery is easy. For once in France, the signage is good. Since the cemetery is technically on American soil, it is open on French holidays and Sundays.

Virtually every grave marker has the fallen soldier's name, rank, home state, unit, and date of death. You would think that having to bury so many people in one place at one time, they would simplify their enormous task by marking each grave with an identical marker. Time and care were obviously taken with each soldier, exemplified by the use of a Star of David instead of a cross for Jewish soldiers.

At one end of the memorial is the very tall "Spirit of American Youth" statue. Surrounding him are maps of Europe depicting troop movements. After showing the kids these maps and attempting to explain history, we set out for a walk through the cemetery. The air was heavy. There are white marble markers everywhere you look. The lawn is immaculate and well taken care of.

There's a white, circular chapel ahead of you. You may think that it's at the end of the cemetery only to find, once you reach it, that it's in the middle and there are several more thousand white crosses on the other side of it.

Flowers and small American flags occasionally break up the white rows. Even with all of the visitors, most people walk in silence. After we walked around the cemetery, trying to take it all in and reading as many names as we could, we walked over to the cliff's edge, where the cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach, one of the D-Day landing beaches. While I've read that this beach can fill up with sunbathers in the summertime, when we were there, it was completely empty. It was a very windy day with gray clouds covering the English Channel and waves indicating an impending storm. The water looked treacherous. This is where many of those buried died.

Back to Saving Private Ryan for a moment. As I assume most of you know, this movie was a work of fiction but was based in reality. It was partly based on the story of the Niland brothers. Robert and Preston died during the D-Day invasion. That same week, a third brother went missing and was thought to have been killed in Asia. (It was later learned that he was captured). The fourth and final brother, Fritz, who was also taking part in the D-Day invasion, was sent home via a plane from Utah Beach. Their mother received all three death notices on the same day. The two Niland brothers who died in France are buried side-by-side at the Normandy American Cemetery. If you want to find their markers, just ask one of the employees at the visitor center for help.

The American Cemetery is only closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

How to get there: The Normandy American Cemetery sits on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel, in Colleville-sur-Mer, 170 miles west of Paris. The cemetery may be reached by car via highway A-13 to Caen, then N-13 to Bayeux and Formigny, continuing on D-517 towards St. Laurent-sur-Mer and D-514 to Colleville-sur-Mer, where signs mark the entrance to the cemetery.

Other American Cemeteries in France

Roughly 40% of the American soldiers who died in WWII are buried overseas in special American cemeteries that fly the American flag. Several of these are in France. France also has WWI cemeteries. In fact, the largest overseas American cemetery is in Meuse-Argonne and covers a staggering 130 acres and serves as the resting place to 14,246 fallen soldiers. There are over a dozen American cemeteries in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The one in the Philippines is even larger, with over 17,000 servicemen.