About Liberation Pointe

For my Eagle Scout Project, I designed and constructed an outdoor World War II educational exhibit titled “Liberation Pointe” to honor the sacrifices of D-Day and WWII veterans. It is located at the front entrance of the Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) in Carlisle, PA. It was unveiled in 2019, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of D-Day and there were 22 WWII veterans in attendance.

The project took over 2 years to complete and consumed 2,385 hours of volunteer work. I raised over $42,000 in cash, and with in-kind donations, and the entire project is valued at approximately $200,000. I provided public speaking presentations at nearly 100 different meetings of veteran organizations, civic groups, and area businesses.

I am extremely proud that I brought community together to help support the project. It involved all parts of my community, from million-dollar corporations, to small local companies, Veteran organizations, all to the way to the Office of the Secretary of the Army, my Scout peers, and Trinity High School students. The project consists of:

• Two Bronze, life size statues featuring American soldiers landing on Omaha Beach. The Soldiers appear as they are advancing and fighting from behind a life size replica anti-tank hedgehog.

• Surrounding the statue, there is a five-sided granite border, each side featuring an educational board for each landing beach (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword). Each board features information about that beach, including the troops that fought there, units, casualties, etc. along with stories from American Soldiers about their experiences at the beach. I interviewed several of the WWII veterans featured here.

• Two additional educational boards, one to describe Operation Overlord and the senior leaders, and one to focus on the paratroopers for a total of seven educational boards.

• Surrounding the statures there is a concrete walkway for visitors to access the exhibit from all five sides of the pentagon.

• Inside the granite border there is rock/sand like material to give visitors the feel of the actual beaches in Normandy.

• Four-trees symbolize the four countries that were involved in the invasion America, Great Britain, France, and Canada.

• Four benches installed under the trees for shade and respite.

• My mission was to honor these veterans and make sure America’s future generations do not forget what these men and women did for our country and the world. Most people in my generation do not even know what D-Day was.

I wanted to change that!