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Georgia State Pikes Pay Tribute to Fallen Brother
The day was sunny and warm. Hovering around 70 degrees, it was nothing like Atlanta where the scorching sun can be deadly. We were fortunate. The majority of our study abroad we got to see what seemed like an endless storm that refused to go away. Nonetheless, we got the good weather when it mattered. Just to explain how we ended up in Normandy, we were in Paris for a corporate finance class of the European Union. We had one weekend off and contemplated how to make it count. A few ideas were tossed around, but being interested in World War II, we both decided that Normandy would be the place to go. But then we started thinking of the trip, we realized that neither one of us had any relatives who were buried in the cemetery. Immediately, we thought of the next best thing, why not go visit a fallen Pike? A member of the Fraternity had to have fought on D-day and sure enough a handful of Pikes had fought in World War II, but only one never made it home, Second Lieutenant Thomas V. Ayers (Omega Chapter).
Now we were on a mission. Paying our respects to our fallen brother now became a top priority for the both us. After researching different tours that were offered to Normandy, we soon realized that the cost was extremely expensive. Our teacher in France suggested that we rent a car to get to Normandy, but not being 25 years of age posed a problem in our efforts to make it to there. After some negotiations, we were able to convince a few of the MBA students to drive us out there. The drive was roughly two hours, which seemed a lot longer being crammed in a tiny French sized car. As we pulled into the parking lot of Normandy, there flew the American and French flags. There was a true sense of pride we felt pulling in and watching our flags fly high in a foreign country. We all got out of the car and headed towards the memorial.
As we started to walk through Normandy, we watched several videos in the memorial about our American soldiers and soon realized that these soldiers were no older than us at the time of World War II. We walked towards the back of the first floor and there was a computer with a name database of all World War II soldiers. I typed in “Thomas V. Ayers” and the location of his gravesite popped up. We started to walk to “plot H”, located in the middle of the cemetery, and walked by a re-creation of a soldier’s burial. The soldier’s gun stood embedded into the ground with the helmet gently resting on top. It is hard to put into words what we saw standing before us and we started to realize the events that took place here June 6, 1944 and the thousands of men who sacrificed their lives just so we could live free today.
As we walked out of the memorial, the first sight was Omaha Beach. We started to get nervous at this point, we were so close. When we arrived at the crosses, there were a group of ladies singing in a beautiful language we had never heard before. It was hard to comprehend how a place so peaceful now was once full of chaos and death 64 years ago. We were amazed how people in Europe still haven’t forgotten. The respect they have for our soldiers has remained deep in their hearts.
Finally, the time had come and we made our way to plot H. Walking up the aisles, we carefully searched for Lieutenant Ayers. I couldn’t believe we were actually about to find him and in that moment we arrived at his cross. While we stood there, we wondered how long it has been since somebody had visited him. I wondered what kind of Pike he was and whether he was surprised to see two brothers over half a century later standing at his grave. After taking a few pictures, we realized we finally accomplished what we had come so far to do. As we were about to head home, we felt compelled to leave something. We took out our Pike membership cards and placed them on each side of the cross. With a sense of pride, I looked at his grave one last time and said “phi phi brother, Pi Kappa Alpha thanks you”.
As we walked out towards the parking lot, a man began playing the bugle ending the day. That day left us with a few things. Thomas V. Ayers died by the code and beliefs that we, Pikes, live by every day. He stood in the face of fear and gave the ultimate sacrifice. He was a True Pike and a reminder to the rest of us what Pi Kappa Alpha truly means.
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