Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 6, 1993 TAG: 9306060062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Young men from Southwestern and central Virginia took center stage in that grisly drama. Many died. Others found their lives changed forever by the experience.
An effort was begun five years ago to construct a monument in Roanoke to the veterans of the invasion. The hope was to have it in place by next year's 50th D-Day anniversary.
But a plan to build a $10 million memorial on Mill Mountain was opposed by those who wanted to keep the mountain pristine and was blocked by the conditions under which the mountain was given to the city. A subsequent plan to put the monument in the city's Entranceway Park has been delayed by development of the Hotel Roanoke.
The idea for a monument has not been abandoned, but the foundation formed to plan and raise money for it has looked for other ways to honor the veterans. Those include an expanded exhibit in the Roanoke Valley History Museum or the endowment of a university professorship.
With the 50-year anniversary now only a year away, the foundation's board has yet to agree on what to do. The effort takes on even more urgency when the average age of the veterans, 70, is considered.
One member of the foundation board, J. Robert Slaughter of Roanoke, is weary after working for a memorial for five years without success. "We've been butting our heads against the wall for a long time. I'm tired," he said.
Slaughter is the only veteran of the invasion on the board. In 1944, as a 19-year-old sergeant in a heavy-weapons company, he slogged ashore under German machine-gun and artillery fire in the invasion's third wave.
The D-Day invasion was the initial thrust of a mighty steel dagger that in the next year pushed deep into Hitler's Nazi Germany. More immediately, it provided the long-sought second front, demanded by Russia of her British and American allies.
Taking part in the Channel crossing from Britain to France were 5,339 ships; 2,377 transport planes; and 867 troop-carrying gliders. Allied aircraft flew over 4,600 sorties from dawn to dusk in support of thousands of ground troops.
Five beaches were attacked; the fighting was its bloodiest on a beach code-named Omaha in the American sector. The assault there was led by units of the First Division (the "Big Red One") and the 29th Division (the "Blue and Gray").
The 29th was spearheaded by companies of its 116th Regiment, which was a Virginia National Guard unit before the war. The 116th had a long history dating to 1741. It was nicknamed the "Stonewall Brigade" for its Civil War service under Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson.
Because of its National Guard history, many of the men in the 116th's various companies shared common hometowns. Virginia communities from Emporia to Roanoke and Winchester to Martinsville provided the core of the units, whose ranks were filled out by draftees.
The 116th's A Company from Bedford and B Company from Lynchburg rode on the first wave of boats to land on Omaha Beach. A crack German regiment was unexpectedly waiting for them and they were cut to pieces.
Ninety-one men from A Company were killed or missing-in-action at the end of the day. Nineteen of the dead were from Bedford. Slaughter's D Company from Roanoke had 39 killed or missing and dozens others wounded. Overall, 3,380 men were killed or wounded on Omaha Beach alone on D-Day.
"The worst part is we lost the cream of the crop right there on the beach," recalled Slaughter, a retired printer at this newspaper.
After the war, the veterans didn't talk much about their experiences, but now that they're getting old they want people to know what went right and what went wrong with the invasion, he said. This desire that people not forget is the motivating force behind the proposed memorial.
But Slaughter says the National D-Day Memorial Foundation is losing good members because of its failure to show much accomplishment since it was founded in 1988.
After the decision to abandon the Mill Mountain site, the foundation turned its attention to city-owned land along Wells Avenue near Hotel Roanoke. They proposed building a reflecting pool and erecting a statue to D-Day veterans there. The plan called for the memorial to be linked by a walkway to a museum in the old Norfolk and Western Railway terminal.
Lee Garrett, the foundation chairman, said that idea is not dead but, if it proceeds, it would be greatly altered by the city's plans for development in the area. The foundation can't continue its planning until the city's differences with Gainsboro residents over the widening of Wells Avenue are resolved, he said.
Garrett said he hasn't had much contact with city officials in recent months, but said former Mayor Noel Taylor was enthusiastic about the memorial and that his conversations with city officials have always been positive.
Mayor David Bowers said he likes the idea of a memorial near the Hotel Roanoke, the centerpiece of the city's tourism initiative.
But Bowers said his priority is to develop a linear greenway between the hotel and the Transportation Museum on Norfolk Avenue. The Transportation Museum and greenway are important because they would attract people to Roanoke like the National Aquarium brings people to Baltimore, he said.
The role of the D-Day memorial would be to extend the city's tourism destination area northward toward the Civic Center, Bowers said.
"It's kind of like putting McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's and Hardees all in the same area. The more attractions we can bring into downtown Roanoke, the more they're going to benefit each other," the mayor said.
Because of the delays, Slaughter said, there's been some discussion of locating the memorial in another community, with Bedford mentioned as a possibility.
Roanoke Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles, who also is a member of the foundation board, said the city needs to keep the memorial in Roanoke.
"If we don't soon do it, these men from World War II are not any longer going to be around," Bowles said.
Since plans for a monument stalled, the foundation has turned its attention toward other ways to honor the veterans. Garrett believes endowing a college or university chair, perhaps at Roanoke College, might be a good way to memorialize the D-Day veterans.
Garrett said he and another foundation board member recently discussed the idea with Clarence Caldwell, Roanoke College's former vice president, and his reaction was positive. The next step, he said, is to talk with college officials about the idea.
"We can move as rapidly as we can get together and start talking," Garrett said. He estimated that it would cost between $750,000 to $1 million to endow a professorship.
Slaughter, who would like to see some kind of memorial effort under way by next year's 50th anniversary, said he believes the endowed professorship is too expensive.
Slaughter says the quickest way to put together an appropriate memorial would be to improve on the existing D-Day exhibit at the Roanoke Valley History Museum. Slaughter believes the foundation can raise the money locally to do that.
Slaughter also believes an exhibit would expose the D-Day story to more people than a professorship.
An improved museum exhibit is not something the foundation should rule out, Garrett said. But first the idea of the professorship should be worked through because that's the direction the board chose to take. "When you're looking at three or four different directions, you're going to lose focus."
The museum exhibit would cost much less than the millions needed to build a monument and park. Slaughter estimates that $10,000 would be all that's needed to get started.
by CNB