D-Day Tour from the Mama's perspective

The whole D-Day Tour was incredibly important to Eric, so I took complete responsibility for the 5-year-old in our family. This was so Eric could have his experience with minimal interruption.

I'm not going to go into major detail, but it's a really unique experience trying to explain war to a young child. For simplicity, I had to break everything down into black hats and white hats -- bad guys and good guys.

Yet that isn't how I WANT to explain it. Most people were doing what they were told to do. Many were doing what they thought was best for their country and/or their family. Some didn't know what they were getting into and others just didn't have a choice.

At that point in history, war was needed stop atrocities, promote freedom and advance humanity. Yet it's nearly impossible to reconcile the loss of life. We've tried to explain to Ella many times that not all soldiers die, but she still doesn't understand.

And how could she? War is not black-and-white and neither is human nature ... and she's just a 5-year-old who knows that she doesn't want to be a soldier when she grows up.