On June 6, 1944, soldiers from the United States Army 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, landed on a beach in Normandy, France code-named “Omaha.” Around 34 of these soldiers hailed from a small town in southern Virginia called Bedford. By the day’s end, 19 of them were dead. Bedford, Virginia suffered the highest per capita death rate of soldiers on D-Day. Four more “Bedford Boys” died later during the Normandy campaign. This tremendous loss grasps the nation, and Congress designated Bedford as the site of the National D-Day Memorial….
