With row after row of stones lined up straight as far as you can see, Arlington National Cemetery can easily become scenic. But for veterans, the stones represent much the opposite.
"Oh, just a long row of them. One stacked after the other and probably a third of a mile back to the beach," Don Turnquist said.
Those are bodies Turnquist recalls seeing piled after D-Day. And just as there is beneath every stone at Arlington, there's a separate story connected to each.
"I ran down the beach looking through boats for an anchor. And I went through about six of them. And the last one I came to had an anchor in a man's leg from his hip down to his foot," Turnquist said.
"I just consider myself one of the lucky ones that came through this," Clyde Mork said.
Mork was a medic who was injured himself during World War II.
"When they called for a medic, I went up and there he was. He got hit; he got his hands just about completely torn off," Mork said. Places like Arlington National Cemetery don't evoke any scenic memories for him, but Mork says he wouldn't miss seeing the many memorials either.
"You finally get to where you put it out of your mind pretty much anyway. Once in a while, it'll come back," Mork said.
