VIERVILLE-SUR-MER, France –
As the sun rose on the northern coast of France June 6, 2025, a group of 30 U.S. National Guard Soldiers, all assigned to the 29th Infantry Division, organized themselves into a neat formation. The tide was in and, as the Atlantic Ocean lapped against Omaha Beach, a crowd gathered around the Soldiers. The onlookers had come from all over, traveling from nearby French villages and towns, neighboring European nations and, of course, the United States. Everyone there that morning - from the most junior Soldier standing in formation, to the oldest reenactor on the beach - was there to pay tribute to the men who stormed Normandy’s beaches on D-Day.
“Eighty-one years ago, on the morning of June 6th, 1944, these quiet shores roared with chaos and courage. The beaches of Normandy became the front line of liberty, and among the first to land on this unforgiving coast were 34 young men from a small town in Virginia called Bedford,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph A. DiNonno, commanding general of the 29th Infantry Division, during a ceremony dedicated to those men, dubbed the “Bedford Boys,” and all assigned to the 29th Infantry Division’s 116th Infantry Regiment. DiNonno explained that on D-Day, 19 of those 34 men from Bedford, Virginia, a town of just over 3,000, were killed. “Per capita, no American town lost more.”
During the ceremony, members of the Omaha Beach Bedford Virginia Association held banners bearing the faces and names of each of the fallen 19 Bedford Boys just across from the formation of 29th Infantry Division Soldiers. After DiNonno’s remarks, the names of each of the fallen were read aloud in alphabetical order, their banner bearers stepping forward one by one.
The first name read was Staff Sgt. Leslie C. Abbott, nicknamed “Dickie” and just 22 when he died. Then Pfc. Wallace R. Carter, Pfc. John D. Clifton and Tech. Sgt. Frank P. Draper. Next was Capt. Taylor N. Fellers, their company commander, and Pfc. Nick N. Gillaspie, a prolific letter writer. Then, brothers Pvt. Bedford T. Hoback, buried at the Normandy American Cemetery, and Staff Sgt. Raymond S. Hoback, whose remains have never been identified. Next came Pvt. Clifton G. Lee, who was shot as he tried to swim to the shore, and Staff Sgt. Earl L. Parker, Pfc. Jack G. Powers, Pfc. Weldon A. Rosazza, Pfc. John F. Reynolds and Staff Sgt. John B. Schenk. Next was Tech Sgt. Ray O. Stevens, whose twin brother, Roy, landed on Omaha Beach aboard a different landing craft and ultimately survived the war. Then, Master Sgt. John L. Wilkes, Sgt. Gordon “Henry” White, Staff Sgt. Elmere P. Wright, who played minor league baseball before joining the Army, and finally, Sgt. Grant C. Yopp, who grew up beside the Stevens twins.
As the ceremony unfolded, the 29th Infantry Division Soldiers, who today continue the legacy of those men who died and survived on the beach, stood fast, body posture rigid and rooted to the ground by professionalism and military bearing. They’d watched as remarks were delivered, as the names of the fallen were read, as a lone bugler played “Taps.” They watched again as roses honoring each of the Bedford Boys were tossed into the surf of the Atlantic Ocean. Then, once the ceremony concluded and they were released from formation, several Soldiers swiped at the moisture gathered in the corners of their eyes. It was the start of their fifth full day in Normandy. The gravity of what they were commemorating was clear to each one of them.
“You take what you think you know from movies and the things you’ve read in books, but being here in person, it’s just completely different,” said Sgt. Thomas Brock, assigned to the Arkansas National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 142nd Field Artillery Brigade. “This has just been very humbling, very surreal.”
For most of the Soldiers, their first view of Omaha Beach was during a battle walk with members of the Normandy Institute. For a few midafternoon hours, they heard about the decisions and planning that went into Operation Overlord, the codename given to the invasion campaign. They learned about the equipment the men used and what the 29th Infantry Division encountered when they attempted to come ashore June 6, 1944.
As they listened and learned, the tide was out, allowing for a perfect picture of what those men encountered.
“This is like nothing I could have prepared myself for,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Utterback, assigned to the 29th Infantry Division’s Headquarters Support Company. Throughout his career, he’s served in various elements within the 29th Infantry Division, and grew up visiting family in Bedford. “It really brings it all into perspective, because I’ve learned about the 29th for so long. Standing there [in formation], I felt pride and was just trying to hold back all the different feelings and emotions going through me being there.”
The day before they honored the Bedford Boys on Omaha Beach, 29th Infantry Division Soldiers volunteered at the Normandy American Cemetery in advance of the large-scale D-Day commemoration ceremony held there each year. They arrived early, most by 7:30 a.m., and were quickly put to work. They joined local residents, members of the American Battle Monuments Commission and others in planting French and U.S. flags at each of the graves. Then, armed with a bucket of clean water a wooden-handled scrub brush, the Soldiers got to work cleaning headstones.
“What was very special for me was getting to clean the headstones,” said Maj. Nicholas S. McVane, a logistician assigned to the North Carolina National Guard’s 113th Sustainment Brigade. “You feel the weight of the history and all these people, not just the Americans. You feel the weight of all the stories that had to end so that everybody else could keep going.”
At the cemetery, there are more than 9,000 graves. As the volunteers worked on cleaning a great many of them, they encountered Soldiers from their home states. From Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. They cleaned the graves of several Bedford Boys, as well as the grave of Tech. Sgt. Frank D. Peregory, a 29th Infantry Division Medal of Honor recipient who received the honor for actions taken June 8, 1944, just a few days after the D-Day landings. They also cleaned the headstone of Maj. Thomas D. Howie, a beloved battalion commander within the 29th Infantry Division dubbed “The Major of St. Lô.” Among those named and identified were also the unknowns.
“I was not expecting to see them,” said Sgt. 1st Class Ralph E. Harris, assigned to the Alabama National Guard’s 226th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, about the headstones reading only, “Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.”
“I wanted to take care of those ones, more so than the rest, just because I don’t know if anyone’s visited his grave,” Harris said. “I don’t know if anyone’s out there looking for that unknown Soldier.”
Throughout their time in Normandy, the 30 29th Infantry Division Soldiers took time to reflect on their personal connections to D-Day, both big and small.
Staff Sgt. John Larrimore, assigned to the Maryland National Guard and the 29th Infantry Division’s Headquarters Battalion, shared that his own grandfather came ashore with the 29th on June 6, 1944. He was part of a naval reserve unit responsible for setting up communications on the beach.
“He jumped over the side of the landing craft, and about 20 seconds later, a German mortar hit the boat and killed nearly just about everybody on that boat,” Larrimore said. His grandfather was able to successfully set up his equipment and ultimately survived the war.
When she was first assigned to the 29th Infantry Division, Sgt. Shelby Blaker, a Maryland National Guard Soldier assigned to the 29th Combat Aviation Brigade, printed a picture of the D-Day landings and put it in her leader book, not realizing she’d find herself walking the shores of Normandy just a few years later.
“When you actually go see the beaches, when you go and you see the cemetery and you just look at the thousands and thousands and thousands of tombstones, and then you find people from your unit and then your state, it all becomes so incredibly personal,” Blaker said. “I’m just incredibly grateful to be part of this unit.”
Staff Sgt. Ivo Garner, assigned to the Virginia National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, previously served in the 82nd Airborne Division, another unit with extensive ties to Normandy.
“I feel like every unit I’ve been in has had a very close historical connection to Normandy,” Garner said. “It’s like I’ve been drawn to this place.”
Staff Sgt. Shea Moody, assigned to the Kentucky National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 149th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, said his best friend’s grandfather stormed Omaha Beach.
“After World War II, he had two Purple Hearts, three Bronze Stars and a Silver Star,” Moody said. “It’s been pretty surreal getting to come and walk on the beaches.”
While the tribute to the Bedford Boys was perhaps one of the most relevant ceremonies for the Soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division, it was just one of several they supported during their time in Normandy. As rain poured in Graignes, they honored paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment who landed there June 6, 1944. They released lanterns outside Carentan and honored their southern neighbors from North Carolina’s 30th Infantry Division, whose legacy is today continued by the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team. On June 6th, the Bedford Boys ceremony was one of three they supported, and, on their final day in France, they supported two more ceremonies dedicated to the 90th Infantry Division, whose legacy is today continued by the 90th Sustainment Brigade, headquartered in Arkansas.
Among the smallest ceremonies they attended was for one of their own, Staff Sgt. Jonathan Kuntze, who extended his enlistment with the Virginia National Guard for an additional six years just after the group arrived at Omaha Beach early in the morning on June 6th.
“It was a very special and definitely a humbling experience,” Kuntze said, explaining that he previously served in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “The story of the Bedford Boys is very near and dear to us in Alpha Company.”
Throughout their time in Normandy, the 29th Infantry Division Soldiers were repeatedly met with kind hospitality from their French hosts. On one of their first nights, local families volunteered to adopt the Soldiers for an evening, welcoming them into their homes, feeding them and introducing them to life in Normandy.
“It was a beautiful experience,” Blaker said. “The French culture, you can’t describe it, really - you feel like you’re a part of the family immediately. They’re showing you pictures, they’re showing you the types of music that they like and there are eight different courses of food to go with it. It was all very humbling and incredible.”
Similarly, Harris said he was moved by the excitement of the French people to greet him and his fellow Soldiers.
“The French people were as excited to see us as we were to see them,” Harris said. “It’s a pretty incredible feeling, too, being welcomed so warmly by the French people, by the people of Normandy.”
McVane said the ample opportunity to talk with locals helped highlight the similarities between their two cultures.
“You have dinner with them and see how kind they are, how welcoming and friendly and how very much like us,” he said. “It’s tempting, as an American, to think of anybody overseas as different, and in reality, they’re not - folks are not different. They’re all just people.”
Just before they left the beach on June 6, 2025, two noncommissioned officers assigned to the 29th Infantry Division walked down to the waterline. They’d experienced a lot in just a few days. They’d commemorated the men who wore the uniform and the patch before them, had cleaned the graves of their heroes, said silent prayers to their memory. They stood trying to picture it all, the chaos and the carnage, tried to imagine the scene that greeted those men in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. After all they’d seen, all they’d learned, it still seemed impossible. They looked at each other, made a silent decision, turned their backs on the water and started to run.
Sand kicked up from their boots as they moved unencumbered by the weight of the canvas and wool that weighed down their brethren in 1944. They moved freely across an unobstructed beach, and still, they felt, in the marrow of their bones, the difficultly of it all.
“You try to put yourself in that headspace and you don’t know how they did it,” McVane said. “The answer is, they did it because they didn’t have a choice, right? It was, ‘we’re gonna do this, or the world ends.’”