Mike Parker: D-Day Memorial – A Sobering Reminder
A couple of weeks ago, we had our bi-annual family reunion in Vinton, VA – my family’s old homeplace for more than 100 years. During our time together, Aunt Judy planned a trip to Bedford, a small Virginia town just over 25 miles away.
The purpose of the trip was to visit the National D-Day Memorial that commemorates the sacrifices Allied forces made on June 6, 1944, to gain a foothold in Europe during World War II. D-Day was the first step of the push to defeat the Axis powers under Hitler.
To date, 4,436 names are etched in the Memorial Wall at the National D-Day Memorial. Of that number, 2,519 were Americans, and 1,917 were Allies. The D-Day records at Bedford represent the world’s most complete list of those who gave all during the Normandy Invasion.
One heart-rending story focuses on a Bedford family who lost two sons on June 6, 1944. On Sunday, July 16, 1944, the Hoback family received a knock at their door. The local sheriff had personally come to deliver a telegram that informed John and Macie Hoback that their son Bedford had been killed on D-Day. The next day, they received a second telegram informing them that their son Raymond was missing in action. Later, Raymond was confirmed dead.
In early August of 1944, the family received a package in the mail from a West Virginia soldier they did not know. Inside was the black, leather-bound Bible Mrs. Hoback had given Raymond in 1938.
The soldier who found the Bible was Harold Crayton of the 453rd Amphibian Truck Company. Crayton explained that he had found the Bible on Omaha Beach and picked it up to keep it safe. He closed his letter with these words: “You have by now received a letter from your son saying he is well. I sincerely hope so.”
This story is just one of the more than 4,000 stories of families who lost loved ones on that bloody day in 1944.
The National D-Day Memorial stemmed from the efforts of John Robert “Bob” Slaughter. Slaughter was born in 1925 in Bristol, Tennessee. In the mid-1930s, his family moved to Roanoke, Virginia.
With his father in ill health and the Great Depression gripping the nation, at age fifteen, Slaughter enlisted in the Virginia National Guard. He earned a $30 monthly stipend to help his family. He was assigned to Company D, 116th Regiment, and trained as a machine gun operator. He later wrote home, “there was no hint that any of us would ever see combat.”
Slaughter was mistaken. In February 1941, the 116th was called into federal service for a year of intense training. Although America was still at peace, war raged in Europe, and the National Guardsmen would need to be prepared. With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of that year, the Virginia citizen soldiers were in the Army for the duration, becoming part of the 29th Division.
Shipped to England to train for a future cross-Channel invasion, Slaughter found the waiting hard to endure. He and some buddies volunteered for specialized service in a new, elite unit: the 29th Rangers. When the 29th Rangers were later deemed unneeded for the coming invasion, the men returned to their former units. Slaughter would later credit his Ranger training with making him a better soldier.
The 116th was chosen to be among the first to land on D-Day at a section code-named Omaha Beach. Slaughter, a 19-year-old sergeant, found himself in command of a machine gun squad on June 6, 1944. While waiting to board his landing craft, Slaughter, like the men around him, received a printed copy of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s encouraging Order of the Day:
“I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!”
Inspired by his commander’s words, Slaughter took his copy around, collecting the signatures of seventy-five men in Company D. Only later would Slaughter realize that eleven of those men died on Omaha Beach; eleven more would die in the fight through France and into Germany. Slaughter carried the folded paper in his wallet through the war, later calling it his “most treasured memento of the war.”
The Town of Bedford offered a sizeable tract of land for Slaughter to use for the Memorial. The Bedford site, located on a windswept hill, offered breathtaking, unobstructed views of the surrounding mountains and the town below. Sitting on more than 50 acres just above the town’s grade school, this place would serve to educate the generations.
For more information about the National D-Day Memorial at Bedford, please visit https://www.dday.org/
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
