In the assault on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, the first landing craft dropped men of Company A of the 116th infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. The 29th was made up of units of the National Guard from Virginia and Maryland. The 116th, descended from the Stonewall Brigade that fought at First Manassas, was from Virginia and company A was from Bedford. German artillery found the range of the approaching boats at 1000 yards, but those not hit continued to the beach to drop their troops in too deep water in face of withering machine gun fire. Within thirty minutes there was no Able Company. 
Today, in Bedford, there is the World War II D-Day Memorial reminding us of that day on the beaches of Normandie. Opened in 2001, it is now in financial distress and its future uncertain. Perhaps the sacrifice of those Americans on that day long ago has faded from our collective memory and there is no money for monuments to duty, honor, country.
I walked the graveyard at Saint Laurent sur-Mere which stretches along the bluffs overlooking the landing beaches. Its perfect rows of white crosses record the names of 9,387 men who will never leave France. Afterward, as our tour bus pulled away, the guide read a note from the visitors log that had been written by a French child. It went something like this: My school visited the graveyard today of those Americans who came to save France. There were so many of them, and so few of us there to say ‘thank you.’ The strains of a Glenn Miller waltz then slowly filled the perfect stillness.


Richard E. Dixon

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