Mission Impossible

The Riffner family vacation trip last year was truly a team event. It was initiated by one team, but it ended up with two.

Marty, 83, is the family patriarch. He and his wife, Joan, were one of the first residents to come to Sun City in 1999. Joan took part in the initial meeting to get a chorus started, a group that later became the Prairie Singers. Marty served on the support teams that assisted the Singers at their Christmas and springtime concerts.

Marty was a veteran of three years stateside service in the U.S. Army in 1949-52. He worked for IBM Corp. for 45 years. Over the years, he became an enthusiastic student of American history and spoke often of visiting famous battlefields of past wars.

The vacation trip idea got started at Christmas, 2014. As the family exchanged gifts that year, Marty’s family invited him and Joan to join them on a trip to France. The highlight would be stops at the many historical sites and memorials of one of the biggest and most famous battlefields of them all, the beaches where the D-Day invasion of France took place in June 1944.

“I served three years in the Army, but all my time was stateside at Ft. Riley, Kansas, and Ft. Sill, Oklahoma,” Marty said. “I served between wars and didn’t get to see much of the world. I often told my family members I hoped some day to travel to places where famous events took place. I was excited to get this chance.”

Plans were made for a nine-person family trip to northern France the following May. It was to take place almost exactly 70 years after the end of World War II in Europe in 1945.

Shortly before departure, however, came bad news. Marty was diagnosed with pneumonia and spent nine days in the hospital. A rigorous overseas trip was ruled out for him.

The family didn’t give up, and they improvised. Two teams were formed. One, called the traveling team, consisted of Joan and Marty’s daughter, Lori; her husband, Andy; his brother, John; Lori’s brother, Richard; Lori’s daughter, Anna; and Lori’s two nieces, Katy and Kristen.

Marty and Joan were designated as the home team.

The traveling team arrived in Normandy in mid-May, rented a car, hired a local guide named Nicole whom they described as “fabulous,” and soaked up as much World War II and French history and culture as they could pack into a week.

Lori decided the traveling team would take pictures to fill an album that would be presented to her parents (as a surprise) when they returned.

“We made sure everyone in our group took a camera and took lots of pictures,” she said. “We came home with hundreds of them. We had a lot of fun, and we hoped the pictures would make a nice memory for my parents.”

The traveling team achieved their desired surprise.

“They didn’t tell us about the album until they got back and sent it to us,” Joan said. “It was a wonderful gift. Marty especially treasures it.”

In France, the travelers immersed themselves in history. They stayed at the Chateau Sevigny, a restored hotel where the Surrender of Cherburg was signed on June 26, 1944. This described the Allied capture of the most important French port that played an important part in the final Anglo-American campaign of the war in 1944-45.

“It was exiting to stay in the chateau close to the room where that treaty was signed,” Lori said.

They visited the Chateau de Bernaville, the site of the German military headquarters. They took pictures of themselves on the same steps where German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel stood on May 17, 1944, during his final inspection visit before D-Day.

The travelers also took a side trip to Mont Saint Michel, a spectacular, historic castle located near Avranches, south of Normandy. Lori described this attraction as “one of the wonders of the world.” They visited the American cemetery at Omaha Beach, where thousands of fallen American servicemen and women are buried above the bluffs where Americans and Germans fought and died on D-Day. They also visited two German cemeteries in the Normandy area. These were built and are maintained by the German War Graves Commission, with the cooperation of the French government and organizations.

They toured Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Army Rangers climbed 100-foot cliffs, while under fire, to attack German artillery positions.

They walked the beautiful Normandy countryside and found reminders of war everywhere – bunkers, bomb craters, and the remains of fortifications.

Every stop and attraction was recorded on film. When the group returned, Lori coordinated preparation of a beautiful photo album with creative graphic illustrations and captions describing the photographs. As a surprise “coming home” event, they sent it to Marty and Joan. On page one, there is a picture of the “traveling team” at one of their stops in France. On the back page, there is a picture of Marty and Joan, with captions saying, “the home team” and “wish you had been there.”

There are many ways to enjoy history and travel – you can live it, and you can share it.

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