The crosses stand in perfect formation beneath the Normandie sky. It is the graveyard at Colleville-sur-mer overlooking Omaha Beach where 9000 young Americans came to France on June 6, 1944 and now stay, forever brave. On that morning, the first to reach the beach were men of Company A of the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division from Bedford County, Virginia. Of its 36 men who went to war, 23 died in France, 19 on D-Day, the highest percentage lost of any community in the United States. Today, in Bedford, there is a memorial to the D-Day landings. To reach it you will probably travel on a highway that bisects Virginia, known generally as Route 29, but it’s full name is the 29th Infantry Division Memorial Highway, a daily reminder of the men who were heroes at Omaha.
Richard E. Dixon