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Decades ago, he was there, too — seeing the same cliff sides, the same slice of ocean, the same tan sands.

His Army boots dropped onto the French beaches in 1944 a short time after the initial invasion known today as D-Day — 80 years before Alles, who uses they/them pronouns, would walk along the same shoreline.

He survived to tell the tale of his time in Normandy, earning a Purple Heart along the way after a piece of shrapnel struck him during combat, leaving him with extensive damage to his spleen, liver and ribs.

His story of survival was sharp in Alles’ mind that day as the salty air blew across their face. To know his story and to see it with their own eyes felt unreal. Words to describe the moment were hard to find, said Alles, who uses the pronoun they.

“I could be standing directly on top of where my great-grandfather walked, where all these other people who served walked,� Alles said. “I'm not sure what the word would be to describe that feeling, just really overwhelmed."

But Alles’ great-grandfather wasn’t the only Lincoln connection on the trip.

Alles, who will be a senior at Lincoln High, was one of around 50 students and several parents on a trip to honor the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1944, when hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and other Allied forces stormed the shores of Normandy to liberate France from German control during World War II. Nearly 5,000 men died in the battle that eventually led to France’s freedom.

Among those who lost their lives in Normandy in 1944 were five Lincoln High School students who once walked the same hallways as students do today. They were buried overseas in France, but Brian Goodbrake, a social studies teacher at Lincoln High who led the trip, wanted to bring a small piece of home to the fallen soldiers.

It’s tradition at Normandy American Cemetery along the coast of France to rub sand from the nearby beaches and historical battlefields on the headstones of those who lost their lives. The people of France often do this as a tribute to the ultimate sacrifice made to free their nation of Nazi occupation during the war.

Instead of taking sand from the beach, though, Goodbrake brought it all the way from America — from Lincoln High itself.

He took sand from the Lincoln High School jumping pits at the track and mixed it with soil from the school grounds. Then, he flew it across the world to let the fallen Lincoln soldiers have a piece of Nebraska back.

As the students rubbed the mixture on the stark white headstones, the names began to pop. Photos of the soldiers were placed beside small American and French flags stuck in the ground next to the stone.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, Alles said.

“It felt really special and heartwarming. It felt like we were reaching out to his soul, and saying we're from Lincoln High, too, and we're honoring you for the service that you did 80 years ago,� Alles said. “Now we're bringing some home to you.�

This is the second time Goodbrake has led a group of students to Europe to learn about D-Day, the first was in 2019 for the 75th anniversary. At the time, he had the idea to travel with sand and soil from Lincoln to use on the headstones, but in the chaos of preparing for the trip, he forgot it.

This time, he said, there was no way he was going to forget. And it was completely worth it.

“It made the whole thing that much more meaningful,� he said.

Goodbrake has taken students on various trips every year since 2016 through the educational travel company Education First, guiding them through historical sites across the world in countries such as Greece, Spain, Poland and Germany. Next year, he’s taking his largest group yet of 68 people to Japan for a nine-day excursion across the country.

As it says in the company name, each trip is always primarily focused on education. Goodbrake works to bring what he teaches in the classroom to life by showing his students the places he talks about, immersing them in the rich culture of the communities they visit and allowing them to explore history in such an interactive way.

“It really is just an extension of what I hope they get in the classroom,� he said. “I want them to make a deep connection to these events, and understand their place in history so it's not just something you read about or a fact you look up, but it's a process that you're involved in. It's something that you do, it's not something that you learn. And there is no better way to do that than to take them to the places.�

On the trip this year, the group started in England, where they toured multiple museums, did some sightseeing and enjoyed a little down time in London. From there, they took a ferry from Portsmouth across the English Channel to Caen, France.

On the anniversary, they attended the 80th D-Day Commemorative Ceremony at the cemetery and saw both the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and U.S. President Joe Biden, who waved at the group as he exited the cemetery with his motorcade.

While in France, they also toured Gold Beach, Omaha Beach, Arromanches-les-Bains and Pointe du Hoc, all of which are historical D-Day sites.

As the group walked along the shore of Omaha Beach, they wore headphones playing what would have been the sounds heard on the beach that fateful day 80 years ago: Gunshots, bombs, screams.

The experience was both shocking and eye-opening, Lincoln High junior Eliana Genis-Frank said. 

"You don't realize how bad everything was, but there wasn't a single moment of peace. There were just screams and noises constantly," she said. "You're looking around and you can just imagine all the people that were there."

To finish the trip, they traveled to Paris to do more sightseeing, a guided tour of Montmartre and a cruise of the Seine River before heading home.

It was another successful trip for Goodbrake, and one he hopes the students will always remember.

“(The trip) exceeded my expectations. It was everything I hoped it would be for these kids and more,� Goodbrake said. “I think it's going to be life-changing for them. It usually is.�