By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – World War II history can be better understood by planting one’s feet on the terrain on which it occurred. This June a local student and teacher will do just that, climbing on Normandy’s bomb-scarred cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, a German gun battery situated between Utah and Omaha beaches, and walking those beaches, as well.
Northeast Middle School teacher Whitney Joyner and one of her pupils, Scott Moore, are among the 15 teams of students and teachers who won an educational trip to Washington, D.C. and Normandy, France. The trip is through the Albert H. Small Student and Teacher Summer Institute “Normandy: Sacrifice for Freedom,” which is produced by National History Day, a competition for middle and high school age students.
Lynn O’Hara, director of programs at National History Day, explains that the many sites these scholars will see will bring them closer to understanding historic events.
“Omaha and Utah Beach, geographically, are very different,” O’Hara says. “We can talk about it and we can look at maps, but there is nothing that compares to the students actually climbing the cliffs, running the distance of the beach and even just feeling the differences in the sand.”
O’Hara said that a committee chose Moore, a 10th grader, for a variety of reasons. One, she says, was “that he has a real appreciation for military history, particularly because of the fact that he is from a military family.”
His father is an active duty soldier who has deployed six times.
Moore says that experiencing his father go through multiple deployments “gave me a real appreciation for what our veterans do and how they go out and fight for us.”
Moore is also a wrestler at his school, a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), a Boy Scout and a history buff. In 2014 he won a gold medal in the Tennessee History Day competition for his project about the Interstate Highway Act of 1956.
“I have done history projects all throughout middle school and high school and I enjoy it,” Moore says.
A prime Allied target at the start of D-Day on June 6, 1944, the 100-foot-high German gun battery at Pointe du Hoc was scaled by U.S. Rangers. It is one of the sites in Normandy that Moore and Joyner will visit./Photo by Andrey Sarymsakov, courtesy of Deposit Photos
He is excited about his upcoming trip, naturally.
“I just think it’s such a blessing that I was even given the opportunity to go on this trip,” he says. “I know most people don’t even travel out of the country in their lifetime, much less a 15 year old going on an academic trip.”
He is currently enrolled in school in the AP European history program.
He says, “One of my favorite characters in history would be General Eisenhower. He was just a great leader, all around, and a great president.”
Joyner teaches gifted education and has helped other students win many state History Day competitions in the past, which then takes them to the national level of competition.
She says, “In the last four years of our participation, (teacher) Polly Kopp and I have had nine projects make it to the national level competition held at the University of Maryland at College Park.”
Joyner is also the granddaughter of a World War II veteran – Robert Lee Harrison, Sr., who served in the Navy – and has also taught many children of military personnel.
From June 20 to 25, the 15 winning students will first visit Washington, where they will hear lectures from military history experts, study at the National Archives at College Park and visit World War II monuments.
Then on June 25 they will fly to Paris, France, where they will tour the Normandy region through July 2. Among the historic sites they will visit are the Pegasus Bridge in Benouville, the Normandy American Cemetery and the German battery of Longues-sur-Mer, among other points of interest.
The taking of Pegasus Bridge in the village of Benouville, France was a major objection in Operation Tonga during the early moments of the Allied invasion of Normandy. The bridge is another site that Joyner and Moore will visit on their trip./Photo courtesy of Deposit Photos
Prior to this trip, Moore and Joyner will conduct research on a Tennessee service member who is buried in the American Cemetery at Normandy. By the trip’s conclusion, Moore will explain this service member’s role in the invasion to the other students, as well as eulogize him during a special ceremony.
“I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like,” Moore says. “I know it’s going to be a very humbling experience to be there and walk where they walked.”
To learn more about student work from last year’s program, visit the website http://66328486.nhd.weebly.com. From there you can navigate to the student Silent Heroes websites, and see a short video about the institute in which Albert H. Small, who funds the institute, is interviewed.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.