About me
As an 80's child I grew up with Police Academy, Revenge of the Nerds, Lego, G.I. Joe, He-Man and that kind of stuff. I re-enacted my own wars with the G.I. Joe minifigures, with my plastic soldiers and with my friends, shooting at each other with sticks and building camps in the woods and making traps to keep them out.
I have fond memories of visiting Bastogne with my parents, and visiting Flanders Fields and the Halen battlefield with school. My real interest only came around 2007 when going on a holiday in Normandy. Though it wasn't planned, I ended up visiting several locations regarding to D-Day, which is off course practically unevitable when in Normandy. And that was it, the bug had me. Since then, I have returned to Normandy over 15 times, visiting, learning, sometimes even teaching. And what makes it even worth more is that each time I have made some new friends from all over the globe.
I began reading and learning more and more about World War 2, started to get in touch with veterans and their relatives and hearing the stories of the people who experienced and witnessed it all. These stories are priceless and should never be forgotten. I'm glad that many veterans decided to write their stories down so it can be shared with later generations, as the last survivors of World War 2 are slowly fading away.
Through the years I expanded my territory to visit. My interest in World War 1 took a raise too. Flanders Fields, Verdun, Somme, Meuse-Argonnes and so on, places I love visiting over and over. Not only the history in the region is what attracts me, but also the region itself. I'm crazy about France and love cruising through the French countryside.
In 2010 some friends and I founded a local association: War Visitors Linkhout. Linkhout is my hometown where I've lived until I was 37, now I still live close to it. The main purpose of our group is to take care of a monument for a Lancaster bomber that crashed in our village in February of 1945. Only the pilot survived and he paid us a visit from Australia back in 2012. Each year we commemorate this event. Besides that we make trips to battlefields and museums.
In 2017 I started as a volunteer for the Fields of Honor Foundation. This foundation researches every American soldier buried or remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at six American Military cemeteries in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Every two year we organise the Faces of Margraten. The foundation started looking for photos of every soldier buried or remembered at the Netherlands American cemetery in Margraten, and every two years at the beginning of May, these photos are put besides the grave of the soldier or at the Tablets of the Missing. I'm very proud to be part of this magnificent team of Belgian and Dutch people.
One of the things I like most is wandering around at the cemeteries. I love reading as much names and dates as possible on each cemetery and start thinking about what might have happened to the men and women buried under each stone. I am blessed to have several military cemeteries in my vicinity which I can regularly pay a visit. Sometimes I just sit there and look around, enjoy the silence and the way the markers are standing there quiet and easy.
Feel free to contact me if you need to know more.
Nick
I have fond memories of visiting Bastogne with my parents, and visiting Flanders Fields and the Halen battlefield with school. My real interest only came around 2007 when going on a holiday in Normandy. Though it wasn't planned, I ended up visiting several locations regarding to D-Day, which is off course practically unevitable when in Normandy. And that was it, the bug had me. Since then, I have returned to Normandy over 15 times, visiting, learning, sometimes even teaching. And what makes it even worth more is that each time I have made some new friends from all over the globe.
I began reading and learning more and more about World War 2, started to get in touch with veterans and their relatives and hearing the stories of the people who experienced and witnessed it all. These stories are priceless and should never be forgotten. I'm glad that many veterans decided to write their stories down so it can be shared with later generations, as the last survivors of World War 2 are slowly fading away.
Through the years I expanded my territory to visit. My interest in World War 1 took a raise too. Flanders Fields, Verdun, Somme, Meuse-Argonnes and so on, places I love visiting over and over. Not only the history in the region is what attracts me, but also the region itself. I'm crazy about France and love cruising through the French countryside.
In 2010 some friends and I founded a local association: War Visitors Linkhout. Linkhout is my hometown where I've lived until I was 37, now I still live close to it. The main purpose of our group is to take care of a monument for a Lancaster bomber that crashed in our village in February of 1945. Only the pilot survived and he paid us a visit from Australia back in 2012. Each year we commemorate this event. Besides that we make trips to battlefields and museums.
In 2017 I started as a volunteer for the Fields of Honor Foundation. This foundation researches every American soldier buried or remembered on the Tablets of the Missing at six American Military cemeteries in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Every two year we organise the Faces of Margraten. The foundation started looking for photos of every soldier buried or remembered at the Netherlands American cemetery in Margraten, and every two years at the beginning of May, these photos are put besides the grave of the soldier or at the Tablets of the Missing. I'm very proud to be part of this magnificent team of Belgian and Dutch people.
One of the things I like most is wandering around at the cemeteries. I love reading as much names and dates as possible on each cemetery and start thinking about what might have happened to the men and women buried under each stone. I am blessed to have several military cemeteries in my vicinity which I can regularly pay a visit. Sometimes I just sit there and look around, enjoy the silence and the way the markers are standing there quiet and easy.
Feel free to contact me if you need to know more.
Nick