29th ID Soldiers honor D-Day legacy across Normandy

VIERVILLE-SUR-MER, France -- In the early morning hours of June 6, 2026, the 29th Infantry Division’s blue-and-gray emblem was etched into the sand in the Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach, marking the ground where the division came ashore 82 years earlier. The tide was out, the morning quiet.

As the sun began to rise, 30 U.S. Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 29th Infantry Division fell into formation near the emblem. Around them stood senior military leaders, historical reenactors, French citizens and travelers from around the world, all gathered to honor the Bedford Boys.

“They were simply sons of a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains — farmhands, mill workers, students, brothers, friends — who had grown up together, trained together and crossed the Atlantic together,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph A. DiNonno, special assistant to the director of the Army National Guard and a former commanding general of the 29th Infantry Division.

“Eighty-two years ago, as the ramps dropped on Dog Green Beach, 34 Soldiers from Bedford, Virginia — all members of Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment — were among the very first Americans to face the full force of the German defenses.”

Within minutes, 19 of the men from Bedford were killed.

“No American community suffered a greater loss on D-Day,” DiNonno said.

Those Bedford Boys had left Virginia in 1941, training first in Maryland and later in North and South Carolina. In 1942, they sailed across the Atlantic to England, where they spent 20 months preparing for D-Day. Then, at 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944, the men of Company A, including the Bedford Boys, reached the Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach aboard six landing craft. Once off the boat, they faced unrelenting fire from German defensive positions nested in the bluffs above them.

“We gather at dawn because this is where their courage was revealed,” DiNonno said. “This is when young men from Bedford stepped forward into history.”

During the sunrise ceremony, the names of the Bedford Boys were read aloud one by one.

The first was Staff Sgt. Leslie C. Abbott, nicknamed “Dickie,” who was just 22 when he died. His name was followed by Pfc. Wallace R. Carter, Pfc. John D. Clifton and Tech. Sgt. Frank P. Draper.

Then came Capt. Taylor N. Fellers, their company commander, and Pfc. Nick N. Gillaspie, a prolific letter writer. Brothers Pvt. Bedford T. Hoback, who is buried at Normandy American Cemetery, and Staff Sgt. Raymond S. Hoback, whose remains have never been identified, followed.

Pvt. Clifton G. Lee, who was shot as he tried to swim to shore, was next, followed by Staff Sgt. Earl L. Parker; Pfc. Jack G. Powers; Pfc. Weldon A. Rosazza; Pfc. John F. Reynolds; and Staff Sgt. John B. Schenk.

The roll call continued with Tech. Sgt. Ray O. Stevens, whose twin brother, Roy, landed on Omaha Beach aboard a different landing craft and survived the war. Then came Master Sgt. John L. Wilkes; Sgt. Gordon “Henry” White; Staff Sgt. Elmere P. Wright, who played minor league baseball before joining the Army; and Sgt. Grant C. Yopp, who grew up beside the Stevens twins.

As the final name was read, the silence again descended on the beach.

In formation that morning listening to the story and the names of the Bedford Boys, was Sgt. 1st Class Justin Assenat, a platoon sergeant assigned to 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Mobile Brigade Combat Team. His grandfather, Sgt. William Hurd, also assigned to the 29th, came ashore on D-Day in the waves that followed the men of Company A.

“It was surreal, just thinking about my grandfather being here 82 years ago,” Assenat said.

Growing up, Assenat heard stories of his grandfather’s service and about D-Day. But standing on Omaha Beach, where his grandfather had fought his way ashore, gave those stories new weight.

Assenat said it hit him then: “how far out they were, what they had to face and what they were up against.”

Leading the formation that morning was Command Sgt. Maj. Justin Walkup, assigned to the 116th Mobile Brigade Combat Team. The day marked one of his last in uniform.

“It’s surreal and humbling,” said Walkup, also a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division. “To wear both the 29th and 101st patches on my sleeve, to be here now in Normandy on Omaha Beach, I can’t think of a better or more amazing way to complete my career.”

As Walkup marked the end of his military service, two Soldiers in his formation that morning marked milestones of their own.

First, Spc. Tristen Tolen, assigned to the 29th Infantry Division’s Headquarters Battalion, extended his enlistment on Omaha Beach. Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, officiated the ceremony.

Then, Spc. Matthew Zrebiec, assigned to the Maryland National Guard and the recent winner of the Region II Best Warrior Competition, was promoted to sergeant by Maj. Gen. Janeen L. Birckhead, the adjutant general of Maryland.

“It was incredible, absolutely life-changing,” Zrebiec said of his promotion on Omaha Beach.

The Bedford Boys ceremony was just one of 10 commemorative events 29th Infantry Division Soldiers supported during their time in Normandy. Among those events was a June 3 welcome at Deauville-Normandy Airport, where Soldiers lined the walkway and rendered honors as World War II veterans returned to France, including U.S. Navy veteran Arthur Rose, who marked his first return to Normandy at age 107.

Between commemorative events, the 29th Soldiers had the opportunity to better understand the region’s history, both within and beyond World War II. Several traveled to Mont-Saint-Michel, a medieval abbey rising from a tidal island off the Normandy coast, while others visited historic sites tied directly to the Allied invasion and the liberation of France.

During a visit to Normandy American Cemetery, Zrebiec and several fellow Soldiers were invited to help lower the flags over the graves of the fallen.

“We were in the right place, at the right time and in the right uniform for it,” Zrebiec said, explaining that cemetery staff approached his group and asked them to assist with the honors. “That was something I’ll never forget, folding the flag at the cemetery in Normandy.”

At that same cemetery, Staff Sgt. Robert Black, assigned to the Virginia National Guard, discovered the grave of a unknown relative — his grandfather’s cousin — among the rows of white crosses.

For Black, the discovery was a reminder that the history remembered across Normandy is not distant. It survives in family names, unit patches and the Soldiers who return to honor those who never left.

“The Bedford Boys cannot speak for themselves,” DiNonno said. “Their legacy demands that we do more than honor them. It demands that we teach their story, live their values and preserve the freedom they died to defend.”