Hazard trooper lays wreath at Normandy American Cemetery
Hazard Trooper Joshua Collett placed a wreath at Normandy, where 9,389 American graves mark the first U.S. cemetery on European soil.
Hazard Trooper Joshua Collett laid a wreath at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, giving Perry County a direct link to one of the most solemn places in World War II history. Collett’s role honored America’s 250th anniversary and placed a Kentucky State Police trooper from Hazard at the first American cemetery on European soil.
The cemetery was established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944, just days after the Allied landings in Normandy. It contains 9,389 military graves and remains one of the most recognized memorial sites connected to the D-Day invasion, the Battle of Normandy and the drive to free Europe from Nazi occupation.
The honor carried local weight in Hazard, where Kentucky State Police Post 13 serves Perry County along with Breathitt, Knott, Leslie and Letcher counties from its base on Justice Drive. For a county that regularly marks military service and remembers its own veterans, Collett’s wreath-laying carried Perry County’s name into a ceremony built around public remembrance and military sacrifice.
Kentucky State Police and the Kentucky State Police Foundation both highlighted the moment on social media, underscoring the agency’s connection to military remembrance and civic duty. The ceremony also gave residents in Hazard, Vicco, Buckhorn and Chavies a clear example of a local public servant representing Eastern Kentucky on an international stage.
That symbolism matters in a place where Memorial Day observances, veterans tributes and law enforcement service often overlap. Collett’s presence at Normandy tied a Hazard uniform to a cemetery that was created to honor Americans who never returned home, and it put Perry County in the frame at a site where the history of war and remembrance is still visibly marked in stone.
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