Tonight I finished adding WikiTree Profiles for all of the Bedford Boys who were killed in action on D-Day, who didn't already have a Profile, which was all but two of them, I think. I also added a couple Profiles for Bedford Boys who survived D-Day: Tony Marsico, the baseball player; and Major Ray Nance, the Bedford Boy who survived the longest, until 2009.
From what I've researched so far, the Bedford Boys were about three dozen men from Bedford County, Virginia who served in the Army National Guard, in Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, which became part of the 29th Infantry Division, when they were mobilized in February, 1941.
They were deployed to England in October, 1942, aboard the Queen Mary.
They trained, near London, at Tidworth Barracks, until their deployment to Omaha Beach, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. One or two of them (Frank Draper, for example) were killed by Nazi artillery before the ramps of their landing craft were let down. As soon as their ramps were let down, more than a dozen of them were shot and killed by Nazi machine gun fire. One or two of them, such as Elmere P. Wright, made it off their craft and through about six-foot deep seawater to Omaha Beach, only to be killed by Nazi machine gun fire there. Two survived the landing, but died later that day. There are conflicting numbers, but apparently, at least 19 of the three dozen were killed in the first 15 minutes of action, a la Saving Private opening sequence.
Marsico was hospitalized in England for three months, then returned to Norfolk, Virginia for rehabilitation. He missed his last roll call in 1986.
Ray Nance, as I mentioned, outlived the rest of his fellow Bedford Boys, missing his last roll call, in 2009.
I'm already in Connect-a-Thon mode, adding their parents and siblings.
