Students Share Impactful Experiences from the Kenney Legacy Trip

Established in 2017 to honor the legacy of Charlie Kenney ‘06, the Kenney Legacy Trip was born from Charlie’s deep belief in the essential role of the military, the honor in serving one’s country, and the importance of understanding history.  Charlie loved Belmont Hill and during his years here he gave heart, mind, and body in service to academic and athletic achievement and community.  This endowed program pays tribute to Charlie’s life and is a means to carry forward his passion for military history and national service. Charlie was deeply moved by his travels to World War II battlefields and memorials and his family’s generosity has made that experience possible for generations of Belmont Hill boys.

In the presence of the entire school community and Charlie’s parents, Anne Detmer and Charlie Kenney, the boys who traveled with faculty members Ms. Zener and Mr. Bracken on the 2025 Trip (the program’s eighth) delivered a presentation that described the trip’s highlights as well as their lasting impressions from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  

The adventure began in London, where their first day featured a visit to the Churchill War Rooms, including the Map Room where strategic planning from the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk to the 1944 Allied Normandy invasion took place.  As Scotty Moreau ‘26 put it, “Being able to see artifacts in the same places they were 80 years ago during one of the world’s scariest times was absolutely mind-blowing.” The London trip also included ventures to the Imperial War Museum and British Museums as well as to Bletchley Park, Britain’s wartime codebreaking headquarters.  

Reflecting on the significance of the work that took place at Bletchley, Gabe Umlas ‘25, who traveled from Dartmouth College to present with his Kenney cohort explained, “Once the Enigma code was broken, the Allies could gain insight into the Axis’s war plans, setup, and much more, leading to major successes such as at the Beaches of Normandy.”

After an early morning Chunnel train from London, the boys enjoyed a day in Paris before heading east to Belgium, stopping for a visit at the medieval Bouillon Castle and the 1918 Belleau Wood battlesite. They spent a sobering afternoon at the Bastogne War Museum and walked through the haunting foxholes of the 1944-1945 Battle of the Bulge and Ardennes Forest, where so many Americans lost their lives, including Belmont Hill alum Peter Mayer ‘44. Jack Coughlin ‘26 observed, “Walking through the forest where the battle took place, it was incredibly powerful to visualize the fighting that took place there.

From Belgium, the group returned to France, driving to Dunkirk on the northern coast, just 45 miles across the Channel to England. After a memorable visit to the Operation Dynamo museum, the boys were ready to visit Dunkirk’s beach and imagine what it might have been like to be a soldier on that beach, praying for evacuation as the Nazis advanced.  In describing Operation Dynamo, Jack noted that “over 900 boats took part in the evacuation, ranging from warships to small civilian boats.” 

From Dunkirk to Normandy: although the military actions were separated by four long years, it took just a half-day to drive from the site of the 1940 evacuation to the site of the storied 1944 Operation Overlord invasion. The boys immersed themselves in the details of the D-Day invasion at the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy in preparation for the next day’s guided tours at the American Cemetery and Pointe du Hoc cliffside battlesite, still scarred with German batteries and enormous foxholes. More than eighty years later, the land bears witness to the violence of the battles fought there. Sharing his experience during our tour of the cemetery, Eli Norden ‘26 declared, “It makes one reflect on the nature of sacrifice. The seemingly endless rows of crosses represent thousands of stories. Freedom was earned by real people. This site represents the cost of a just fight—it’s not easy, but that’s what makes our freedom today so much more meaningful.”

In between battlefields, the boys enjoyed the chance to visit a medieval castle (complete with torture chamber!) as well as historically significant Gothic cathedrals in Reims and Rouen.  Describing the cathedrals’ workmanship and detail, Will Trautz ‘27 observed, “The longer we sat there, the more we noticed—tiny carvings in the stone, little faces and figures in the walls, hidden details built into the glass. Every part of the cathedral was full of art and meaning. It was one of those places that felt both peaceful and awe-inspiring at the same time.”

This group’s “longest day” was the trek from Normandy to Frankfurt, Germany, home to Germany’s second-largest Jewish population before World War II.  A brief visit to the Jewish Museum set the stage for this day’s focus: learning the human cost of the Holocaust. The boys visited the Börneplatz Memorial Site, where stones embedded in the wall of the medieval Jewish cemetery honor each Frankfurt Jewish resident, including Anne Frank, who was murdered by the Nazi regime. In addition to visiting another Holocaust memorial (site of mass Jewish deportation), the boys were given a tour of the sole synagogue that survived Kristallnacht and visited the former I.G. Farben headquarters, which from 1945 through 1995 served as the US military and CIA headquarters in Europe.

The trip’s final day was spent in sunny Paris, returning to the beloved Marais hostel in the city’s historic Jewish quarter. In the two days they explored Paris, the boys took in the Eiffel Tower, the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb, as well as exploring local Holocaust memorials that, since the 1990s, have begun to grapple with France’s wartime complicity. As Eli explained, in an infamous 1942 “round-up,” French police arrested more than 13,000 Jews, including 4,000 children, and held them for five days in the winter cycling arena (Vélodrome d’Hiver) without food or water. After viewing the sites of so much violence and suffering, it seemed fitting to end the trip with a visit to the recently restored Notre Dame Cathedral.  Just six years after the catastrophic fire that brought down its twin spires, the cathedral again stands whole. It seems a fitting metaphor for the unity that Europe now enjoys following two devastating world wars.

In closing their presentation, the boys offered reflections on how their participation in this extraordinary trip impacted them individually. Scotty’s words captured the group’s memorable experiences.  “I think this trip will have a lasting impact on my life. Being able to see first-hand what American 18 year-old boys just like me were forced to deal with, proved to me to never take anything in life for granted. I developed a deeper appreciation for Charlie Kenney as well, understanding the privilege he had—just like all of us in the Chapel—to attend a school like Belmont Hill. But still he decided the best thing for him was to serve his country, and leave everything else in his life on hold. I am so thankful for the great opportunity I was given, and I will never forget my experiences on this trip.”