Tribute Center dedicates new Normandy plaque
BY JOHN BARNHART
STAFF WRITER
On Sept. 27 in Vierville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, a two-by-three-foot granite stone plaque honoring the Bedford Boys was dedicated and unveiled before several hundred American and French dignitaries and citizens.
In the opening minutes of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Bedford Boys’ hometown of Bedford, Virginia, with a population of 3,200, suffered the largest loss per capita of any community in America. This loss changed Bedford forever. This plaque memorialized the Bedford Boys and their fellow comrades in arms in Virginia's 116th Infantry Regiment of the famed 29th Infantry Division, who gave their lives in the preparation and participation in the Normandy landing and campaigns of World War II to free Europe of tyrannical occupation.
Ken and Linda Parker of the Bedford Boys Tribute Center had to do something to memorialize them forever. They began an eight-month endeavor to do just that. Last March 14th, Ken and Linda presented the idea of creating a memorial plaque to the National Guard Educational Foundation’s thirteen-member Board of Directors in Washington, D.C., under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Paul D. Rogers. The purpose of this presentation was to gain permission to erect a Bedford Boys Memorial Plaque to be placed on their National Guard of the United States Memorial that they owned, located atop the German 88mm gun emplacement, WN-72, at the Vierville Draw. This memorial is in the Dog Green Sector. of Omaha Beach, where the boys landed and were killed in action in the opening minutes of the assault. The Board of Directors voted and unanimously approved the Parkers’ proposal. After gaining permission, the Parkers set out to produce this new plaque.
The National Guard Monument is built on top of a German bunker at the Vierville Draw, on Omaha Beach, where the Bedford Boys landed. After the war, the property belonged to a beachfront hotel. The owner donated it to the National Guard Association, which built the National Guard Monument on top of it. Upon completion, they received invaluable assistance from the American Battle Monument Commission staff from the Normandy American Cemetery (NAC) located in Colleville-sur-Mer. This cemetery is sacred ground containing 9,387 graves of our fallen, including nine Bedford Boys. The staff was responsible for placing the plaque from the granite company and installing it on WN-72 in time for the dedication and unveiling ceremony.
The ceremony began at 11 a.m. with the playing of the American and French National Anthems and invocation given by Vicar General Father Oliver Ruffray. A short greeting was given by the Mayor of Vierville-sur-Mer, the Honorable Antoine de Bellaigue. Ken Parker then continued the ceremony by quoting a statement written by an American military historian, Claudia Pemberton from Huntington, West Virginia, who wrote, “America without her soldiers would be like God without His Angels.” Ken then added, “At 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 6 June, 1944, D-Day, 19 Bedford Omaha Beach communities continually have for the Town of Bedford and her sons, brothers, and husbands who sacrificed so that they are free today.”
Lastly, Mr. Steve Oliver-Crockett, member of the American Battle Monuments Foundation, presented all the educational efforts and programs that the Foundation conducts annually to promulgate the legacies of all veterans and fallen of the World Wars.
The ceremony continued with the reading of the plaque and a single ringing of the bell for each individual as his name was read. The ceremony concluded with the unveiling of the plaque, followed by the playing of taps and a 21-gun salute.
American soldiers became Angels of God. “We are here today to honor their sacrifices and legacies,” said Ken Parker, curator of the Bedford Boys Tribute Center, speaking at the dedication of the Bedford Boys plaque at the National Guard Monument. The plaque is at the base of the monument.
The history of Company A under the command of Captain Taylor N. Fellers, leaving New York Harbor on the Queen Mary 83 years ago on Sept. 27, 1942, the letter writing of PFC Nick N. Gillaspie, and the events of July 17, 1944, and the shock of 21-year-old Western Union operator Elizabeth Teass as the telegrams began arriving in Green’s Drug Store reporting the first fatalities of the Bedford Boys, were honored.
The Bedford Boys Tribute Center invited the following keynote speakers to participate in this historic ceremony: First was Maj. Gen. James W. Ring, the Adjutant General of Virginia, who gave a detailed overview of the 400-year history of the Virginia National Guard and the 116th Infantry Regiment. Following was April Cheek-Messier, President and CEO of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, who emotionally cited many personal stories of individual Bedford Boys. Francois Gosselin, President of the Omaha Beach Bedford VA Association, spoke of the great gratitude that the townspeople of the…
Ken Parker quoted a famous statement made by General George S. Patton, Jr.: “It is sad and wrong to mourn the men who have died; rather we should thank God that such men lived.” No truer words were ever spoken. That perpetually teaches us that “freedom is not free,” and our beloved Bedford Boys will never be forgotten.
The plaque was added to the National Guard Monument at the Vierville Draw on Omaha Beach. The granite plaque lists all Bedford Boys killed on D-Day.