ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JAMES TOLLIVER JR. STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 8, 1996.
A story and photo caption in Friday's paper about the D-Day monument
ceremony in Bedford contained erroneous information.
Bob Slaughter's two Purple Hearts were awarded for injuries sustained
after the D-Day invasion.
Also, the photo caption incorrectly identified Berkeley Riley as one
of only 12 survivors from the 29th Division's landing force at Normany.
More than 12 men from the 29th survived, although only 12 of the 35 men
in the Virginia National Guard unit from Bedford, a part of the 29th,
survived the landing and its aftermath.
ORGANIZERS HAVE RAISED more than $1 million in public funds but still need $7 million for the envisioned monument and library.
Bob Slaughter survived D-Day with injuries that won him two Purple Hearts. But no medal could ease the painful memories of the friends who were killed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
"I watched my buddies die on D-Day," said Slaughter, a Roanoke veteran and chairman of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation. "I can't go on without making some effort to preserve their memories."
Slaughter and other organizers for the National D-Day Memorial have raised more than $1 million in public funds for the project, and on Thursday they launched a campaign to raise the remaining $7 million needed to build the memorial.
Slaughter gave a progress report on the project to about 250 people during a ceremony here Thursday to commemorate the anniversary of the invasion that began the land war in Europe.
"We plan to raise the rest in two years, take one year to build, and have the President cut the ribbon at the 55th anniversary," said Richard Burrow, executive director of the foundation. "The first thing we have to do is create a national awareness of the project."
Fleishman-Hillard, one of the largest advertising firms in the world, will work with the foundation to promote the project.
"They will put us with media across the country," Burrow said. "Yesterday we had an article in USA Today."
The George C. Marshall Foundation - which specializes in military and diplomatic history - also will be a partner in establishing the memorial.
"The Marshall Foundation will be very involved in this project," said Thomas Camden, director of the Marshall Research Library in Lexington. "We try to do projects like this because it educates so many."
Regional governmental support for the memorial has been strong. According to Burrow, Bedford County has earmarked $300,000 over three years, and Bedford City has pledged $350,000 for construction.
Other localities that have pledged money include Roanoke, $250,000 over five years; Roanoke County, $250,000 over 10 years; Salem $250,000 over five years; and Vinton, $5,000 this year.
"Don't tell the D-Day foundation that regional help doesn't exist," Burrow said. "Even [project architect] Byron Dickson donated $52,000 worth of his work services."
Bedford was selected as home for the memorial because it suffered the greatest per-capita loss of life of any U.S. community in the D-Day invasion and its immediate aftermath. Of the 35 young soldiers from the Virginia National Guard in Bedford, only 12 survived.
"I think back a week before D-Day," Bob Sales, a veteran from Amherst, said. "We were just young guys in an English pub drinking beer and chasing women."
"We owe this memorial to the soldiers who did not make it," said A.A. Sproul, another veteran. "They never got a chance to live."
The 10-acre memorial in Bedford will feature a 44-foot granite arch, framing two peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It will be topped by a sculpture of a rifle with a bayonet stuck in a rock and a helmet on the gun stock, which represents the temporary graves of soldiers killed in battle.
Water will flow from the monument into a series of reflecting pools that will contain statues of a soldier lying face-down in the water and one struggling ashore. The foundation also plans to develop a museum and visitors center with video rooms and educational programs.
"It's 50 years overdue, but the U.S. will have a national memorial of D-Day," Burrow said.
"Until 1984, we went 40 years without anyone mentioning D-Day," Slaughter said. "Now people realize how tragic that day in Normandy was."
The Associated Press contributed this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART Staff Berkeley Riley salutes as theby CNBNational Anthem is played during a ceremony to raise funds for the
National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. He is one of only 12 survivors
from the 29th Division's storming of Normandy in World War II.
color.