Urn at the Normandy American Memorial

My picture gives no sense of scale, but this is one of four urns each about 4 feet (1.2 metres) tall. The Memorial is linked with a cemetery in which 9,380 USA service personnel are buried, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings in 1944 or in the ensuing operations.
This urn represents words with which troops from both Jewish and Christian backgrounds will have been familiar: “The spirit of the lord moved on the face of the waters.” This seems to be fitting, since the Cemetery contains the graves of Christians and Jews, who fell together serving a common purpose.
On the water, a spray of laurel recalls to memory those who lost their lives at sea; a rainbow emanates from each hand of the figure symbolizing hope and peace.