The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Our Chairman of the Board Jerry Klein traveled through Europe during September. Jerry tells us a little about his trip. He tells us:

This trip was primarily to visit the Normandy beaches (do kids in school these days even know what that means?). Started in Brussels and visited Brugges, the World War I museum in Ypres, then into France driving along the coast from Dunkirk to the Normandy beaches.

Visited all of them: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword and Juno. Also visited Mont St, Michel, St. Marie Eglise and the Pegasus Bridge (both of which figured critically in the D-Day invasion), and a German World War II cemetery.

From there we drove to Chartres. The stained glass windows in the cathedral are dazzling. From there to Epinal, southeast of Paris, where an uncle of mine is buried. He was an infantryman in Patton's Third Army and was killed during the push through France towards Germany. We were personally escorted to his grave, where the asst. administrator rubbed sand from Omaha Beach into the engraving on the headstone - made it look
like it was engraved in gold.

Then the head administrator took us and another family on an hour and a half tour of the cemetery, telling us fascinating stories about many of the persons buried there. One was Bradley Clark, brother of Dick Clark of American Bandstand fame. I shot video of him telling that story, which you can see (here).

Then we visited Strasbourg, which also has an impressive cathedral. Finally to Paris, then home. Paris was mobbed with tourists. Took us 40 minutes waiting in line to get into Sainte Chappelle, which we had never seen (small but the stained glass windows are exceptional). The lines at Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower were so long that we didn't bother (we'd seen both before).

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com