A2 BEDFORD BULLETIN Wednesday, June 11, 2025
D-DAY
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Sergeant in command of a heavy machine gun crew on Omaha Beach in the first wave. In his later years, he had a dream of a memorial to the men who fought that day. His dream became reality in the form of the beautiful monument we see today.
This year marks the centennial of Slaughter's birth. In a photo of him, in uniform as a private, he looks like a kid. That is because he wasn't more than a kid when the unit was called to national service on February 3, 1940. He had enlisted in the Virginia National Guard at 15, and he went on active duty only days after his 16th birthday.
Governor Glenn Youngkin, center, laid a wreath during the ceremony. Bedford's JROTC unit served as color guard.
In less than a year, liberated Europe.
Youngkin referenced the words of Jesus in John 15:13 when he said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.
His body was found the next morning. His body was eventually buried as an unknown in the American cemetery in Normandy after the war. Years ago, thanks to work by a Department of Defense agency, active-duty military, Bedford Boys Tribute, and a major assist from, it was narrowed down to two possible soldiers. They were exhumed and DNA tests were conducted.
April Cheek-Messier paid tribute to Sergeant.
American flags were placed by the plaque, and a red rose was laid at the base of it.
Thornton's remains were returned to a family member and will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery this summer, 81 years after his death.
At the end of the ceremony, Gov. Youngkin greeted all World War II veterans present. Before the ceremony, three of them shared their stories.
Part of the landing at Peleliu, an island in the Pacific. His unit came behind the 1st Marine Division. Their landing craft got hung up on a coral reef, and they had to get out and wade the last 100 to 150 yards. They were under Japanese fire for half of that distance.
Once ashore, Inlow spent the next two ar
LIVES
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Fellow Company A veteran Roy Stevens placed a plain ivy wreath at the stone. An ivy wreath stood for Ivybridge, the small English town near the area where the Bedford Boys trained for a year. The people of the town adopted them and invited them into their homes when they had a weekend off. The local pub, The Sportsman’s Inn, was the men’s watering home and, when the pub owners learned that Americans preferred their beer cold, they stole a refrigerator from a British Army unit so that they could provide cold beer for their American friends.
Ray Nance and Roy Stevens began a tradition of laying a plain ivy wreath 71 years ago.
Nance and Stevens continued their tradition for more than 40 years until age and, eventually, death ended it. Stevens died in 2007 and Nance in 2009.
Ken and Linda Parker revived the tradition a few years ago, with family members laying the wreath. This year, John Nance, Ray Nance’s son, and David Stevens, Roy Stevens’ nephew, laid the wreath. This year they had an honor guard of two Army sergeants and Capt. Jonathan Shelton, commanding officer, Company A’s current. There were distinguished speakers.
“June 6 is a sacred day, here,” Cheek, who grew up here, commented.
Capt. Shelton said the day reminds us that there are things in this world that are worth fighting for. He noted that the of Company A, 81 years ago, did just that, boarding landing craft at 3 a.m. and reaching the beach at 6:30 a.m.
April Cheek-Messier spoke of the importance of D-Day.
Terry Sears, a former Marine and husband of Winsome Sears, also a former Marine and Lieutenant Governor, noted that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who commanded German troops in the Normandy area, said that, if the Allies breached the line of fortifications that the Germans had
LIVES
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Erected on the Norman coast, Germany would lose the war. Six hours after Allied troops landed, they had breached those fortifications.
Bedford Boys stood up for what is right. He quoted John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Sears said that the a hammer to strike the courthouse bell 2025 times, once for Bedford Boy killed. Then, Ken Parker, curator of Tribute Center, read the names of each of the Bedford Boys. Family members of the Bedford Boys came forward as each name was read.
The ceremony ended at 6:44 p.m. when a county employee used
The tradition lives on
BY JOHN BARNHART
STAFF WRITER
The Bedford Boys Tribute Center continued the tradition of laying a plain ivy wreath at the stone bearing the names of the Bedford Boys killed on D-Day.
Back in 1954, Ray Nance had been instrumental in bringing a stone to Bedford to remember the men of Company A killed on D-Day. Nance had been the Company A second in command but was unable to take command when Capt. Taylor Fellers had been killed, as he had been shot three times.
The American Legion fires a 21-gun salute.
Granite taken from a quarry in the Vierville Draw that served as the command post of what was left of the company on the evening of June 6, 1944. When it got to New York, there was a dock worker’s strike, but when the workers heard what the stone was for, they crossed their own picket line to unload it from the ship and put it on a train.
The stone was a gift of France to Bedford and was
The stone and bronze plaque were set up on June 6, 1953, at a ceremony attended by 5,000 people. That evening, Nance and