16-181 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

Earl Randolph Newcomb

Earl Randolph Newcomb, 93, of Bedford, passed away Monday, February 26, 2007 in a local nursing home. He joined Company A of The National Guard in the Late 1930's. He serviced as the Mess Sergeant for Company 116th Infantry. He was a D-Day veteran and one of the Bedford Boys.

Roy O. Stevens

Roy O. Stevens, 87, of Bedford, died on Monday, January 1, 2007, at his home, surrounded by his loving family.
Roy was a Sergeant of Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day earning the name "The Bedford Boys." He was a member of that patriotic company of men that gave the valor, fidelity and sacrifice necessary to preserve our national freedom and thus brought about the end of World War II. Edward Stevens his twin brother was killed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944
John Wilkes

John Wilkes, 24, met his wife, Bettie, at a football game at New London Academy where she went to school.

He was in service the entirety of their marriage. She received a telegram in 1944 that he died at D-Day

“He was a good natured fellow,” she told the News & Advance in 2001.
Apparently, he was a hard sergeant, which she found out after meeting a medic who survived the war.
“‘Did I know Sgt. Wilkes?’” she said the medic replied. “‘He drilled the hell out of us, but he made men out of us.’”

Andrew Jackson Coleman
Enlisted on Feb 3, 1941 in Bedford Co, VA. US Army WW2. He was 29th Infantry Division. He was a member of the storied Company A National Guard of VA. He fell ill while training in England. The cause of death was said to be brights disease.

Jack Powers

Family of Jack Powers, 24, said he loved playing his guitar and singing. He also loved to dance.
On D-Day, he died on a boat when it sank on the way to the beach in Normandy. His parents received the telegram notifying him of his death weeks later.

Gordon Henry White

White’s family didn’t know whether he made it to the beach on D-Day, but they believe he died in the water because many of the articles returned to them had been wet.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Mark in Rochester]

Bedford_Boys

Bedford, Virginia... 
Like eleven other Virginia communities, Bedford provided a company of soldiers (Company A) to the 29th Infantry Division when the National Guard's 116th Infantry Regiment was activated on 3 February 1941. Some thirty Bedford soldiers were still in that company on D-Day; several more from Bedford were in other D-Day companies, including one who, two years earlier, had been reassigned from the 116th Infantry to the First Infantry Division. Thus he had already landed in both Northern Africa and Sicily before coming ashore on D-Day at Omaha Beach with the Big Red One. Company A of the 116th Infantry assaulted Omaha Beach as part of the First Division's Task Force O.

[Bob Womack]

Because of the percentage of losses to population, little Bedford, VA., suffered the highest proportional losses of any community in the U.S. in the Normandy campaign. As a result, the National D-Day Memorial is located in the town.

Bob

[ed skeels]

We have a Womack City Building named after a local WW2 hero in Columbus NC. Any relation?
Ed

[Bob Womack]

Not that I know of, but thanks! My family came from Spruce Pine, NC.

Bob