Collegiate Times

June 6, 1944. As over 175,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen launched the largest seaborne invasion in history, towns and cities across the United States waited to hear news of the success or failure of the invasion, on which the entire course of the war hinged.

As the day progressed, telegraphs bearing both good and bad news began to flow across the Atlantic. They bore the news that the invasion had succeeded, but that Joe, Bob, Alex or Steven wouldn?t be coming home. The small town of Bedford, Va. was one of the hardest hit, suffering the greatest per capita number of casualties of any town in the United States.

On Tuesday, exactly 62 years after Bedford and towns across the United States received those telegrams of condolence, American?s veterans and civilians alike gathered at the National D-Day memorial in Bedford to pay their respects to those who paid the price that guaranteed the ultimate success of the landings in Normandy.

?We reflect on this day, and also mourn for the loss,? said April Cheek, director of education at the National D-Day Memorial. ?Here we ensure that their sacrifice is not forgotten.?

Over 500 people attended the event, which included speeches from the mayor of Bedford, music from the Enduring Freedom Honor Band, an invocation from the chaplain of the Aegis-class cruiser USS Normandy and a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial. ?I think it?s fantastic. Bedford has done a fantastic job (with the memorial),? said Lieutenant Robert Burns, chaplain of the Normandy, a Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser homeported in Norfolk, Va.

Several people broke down in tears during the ceremony ? veterans remembering friends, family members remembering siblings and people simply caught up in the emotions of the ceremony.

?It?s amazing that there?s still so much interest in the invasion,? Cheek said. ?People have not forgotten the sacrifices that were made.?

The Enduring Freedom Memorial Band, based out of Fredericksburg, took a leading role in the ceremony, as Mike Euson read a soldier?s prayer and Greg Reed read General Eisenhower?s order of the day from memory, saying in part, ?Let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.?

?We work specifically with the memorial as needed,? said Euson, a member of Enduring Freedom, which is run out of Faith Baptist Christian School in Fredericksburg. Planning for the event began a year in advance, as organizers worked out schedules to allow veterans groups and speakers to attend. Volunteers, many of whom were veterans themselves, staffed the event, running carts and making sure everything went smoothly. One of the volunteers, Dave Carroll, was also a veteran of World War II, though he was quick to point out that he ?didn?t see any action.? Carroll, a regular volunteer at the memorial, said the crowd was somewhat light for a major event, saying ?it was a better crowd on Memorial Day.?

Still, those who were present could not help but be touched by the ceremony, with many audience members giving messages of thanks to the veterans present at the event ? something that may not be possible in the future.

?There?s only about three people from Bedford still living who served in the invasion,? said John Hudson, who served as a sailor aboard the USS Texas, a battleship that participated in both the invasion of Normandy and the final battles against the Japanese in the Pacific.

Cheek confirmed the grim prognosis, saying ?the average age of these veterans is 85.?

Still, she was quick to point out that their memory will live on, through events like the one on Tuesday, long after the last veteran is gone.

?On behalf of everyone here today, we say thank you,? she concluded.

Cheek, a 1998 graduate of the history graduate program at Virginia Tech, has been Director of Education at the memorial since 2001.

The memorial, which opened in 2001, was built by a non-governmental foundation, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, in conjunction with the city of Bedford.