CNN's Ed Henry followed President Obama on his trip to the Middle East and Europe, ending at a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe. You can see his reflections from Normandy, as well as  the entire Obama trip, by going to his Twitter page.



Row upon row of gravestones at the American Cemetery  mark those killed in the invasion.



NORMANDY, France (CNN) -- I knew my first visit to the American Cemetery at Normandy would be emotional, but I really had no idea I'd be tearing up literally within about eight minutes of walking the rows of bone-white gravestones.



Those of us in the White House press corps traveling with President Obama to France on Saturday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of D-Day were very lucky. It was truly awesome to have a front-row seat to the celebration of the climactic battle of World War II, where Allied forces finally stopped the Nazi aggression.



If there was a hint of a downside, it was that all of us had to wake up Saturday somewhere around 5 a.m. Paris time (11 p.m. ET Friday, ugh) to then board one of several buses that would take us on a 3½-hour journey to Normandy. That's right,  3½ hours on a tour bus when you're already totally exhausted from a very busy trip that took us from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and then Germany and France in just a few days.  Watch President Obama's speech at Normandy »



The upside? WE'RE GOING TO NORMANDY!!!



Besides, do I really want to complain about a stinking bus ride when about 2,500 brave Americans lost their lives on this battlefield during the first 24 hours of vicious combat on June 6, 1944?



Didn't think so.



So I jump off the bus, head for the cemetery and decide I should pick just one of the dozens and dozens of rows of tombstones and keep walking until I stumble upon the first grave of a soldier from New York -- my home state -- that I can find.



In less than a minute, I found it. His name was Martin J. Biringer, a private from the 4th Cavalry. I bowed my head and thanked him for his service, trying to put myself in his combat boots, thinking that when I was an 18-year-old or 19-year-old kid growing up in New York, I doubt I had the strength and courage this man had to answer his country's call.



I decided to take my iPhone out and start posting reflections and photos on Twitter, starting with Biringer's grave.



I decided to keep walking down the same row of graves toward Omaha Beach, where the invasion began, and this is where I really got choked up. There was a bouquet of flowers sitting under one grave with a card written out in longhand on a piece of white paper.



"From your brother Pete, I remember you," it said so simply and yet so elegantly.



That's when I started feeling the chills on my back. The flowers were fresh, and so was the ink on the card. "Pete" had clearly been here in the last day or two, and I started thinking about the fact that he had not seen his "brother" in 65 years.



Sixty-five years. And yet he made the trek all the way here to simply say, "I remember you."



I started tearing up thinking of my own family: imagining my son going off to war and dying, and my daughter traveling to this cemetery 65 years later, and leaving a card like that. I remember you.



That's when it hit me: how easily we take for granted the emotional holes that the war left in so many lives.



In this case, I looked up and saw that Pete was paying tribute to his brother Theodore Cassera of New Jersey, a staff sergeant from the 8th Infantry who died a couple of weeks after D-Day. A man who fought and died so that we could be free.



Nearby, I found another
What was on the grave? What does Ed Henry do? Where was President Obama visiting? Where did Ed Henry walk? When was Normandy? What was on one grave? What news agency does Ed Henry work? Where did Obama take a trip too?
a bouquet of flowers followed President Obama on his trip to the Middle East Middle East and Europe, American Cemetery at Normandy June 6, 1944? a card written out in longhand CNN's Middle East and Europe,
question: What was on the grave?, answer: a bouquet of flowers | question: What does Ed Henry do?, answer: followed President Obama on his trip to the Middle East | question: Where was President Obama visiting?, answer: Middle East and Europe, | question: Where did Ed Henry walk?, answer: American Cemetery at Normandy | question: When was Normandy?, answer: June 6, 1944? | question: What was on one grave?, answer: a card written out in longhand | question: What news agency does Ed Henry work?, answer: CNN's | question: Where did Obama take a trip too?, answer: Middle East and Europe,