The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. (VR) – Pearl Harbor – “a date which will live in infamy”. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke those words on December 8, 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7th.
It was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops stormed 50 miles of Normandy’s fiercely defended beaches in northern France in an operation that proved to be a critical turning point in World War II. The Allies overcame grave initial setbacks and took all five Normandy beaches on June 6.
Organizations such as the National D-Day Memorial Foundation have attempted to come up with definitive numbers of all the forces killed that day. At its memorial site in Bedford, Virginia, there are 4,414 names enshrined in bronze plaques representing every allied soldier, sailor, airman and coast
guardsman who died on D-Day. Of the 4,414 Allied deaths on June 6th, 2501 were Americans and 1,913 were Allies. Among the stunning losses of those first-wave soldiers were 19 young men known as ‘the Bedford Boys”. The U.S. Congress chose Bedford, Virginia as the site of the National D-Day
Memorial because it suffered the highest per capita D-Day losses of any community in the nation. The 19 Bedford Boys were mostly National guardsman who were some of the first to land on Omaha Beach. (History.com).
World War II soldiers were called the “greatest generation”. These individuals grew up during World War I and lived through the Great Depression and are often called parents of the Baby Boomers.
There are volumes written about this war and the tremendous losses.
Today we would like to honor some of the Alleghany Highlands own veterans.
On July 4, 2024, during the veterans recognition ceremony four surviving World War II veterans were recognized: Marion Noel (Navy – age 99), Jerry Humphries (Army – age 99), Jack Cassell and John Owens (Army – age 102). Mr. Owens passed away on October 25, 2024.
Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr was a United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic actions in World War II at the D-Day landings in Normandy, France.
PFC Samuel Hinkle Carr – Army – 9201ST T S U Military Police Detachment (POW)
PFC Irving Thomas Carter – Army – 326th Army Air Force Base Unit
PVT Collins McKenny Hughes – Army – Med. Sec. 359O0th Service Command Unit (Wounded)
SS Everett Nathaniel Hughes – Army – CO C 388th Engineer BN
PFC David Lewis Humphries – Army – 62nd INFBN Armored Div (KIA)
PFC James Russell Humphries – Army CO I 306th INF (Wounded)
SGT Jewell Humphries – Army CO K 116th INF (Wounded)
PVT Donald C Kumm – Army – 328th INF REGT 26th INF DIV (KIA January 4, 1945)
2nd LT George R Kumm – Army – 850th BOMB. SQD 490th BOMB.GROUP (H) (KIA 3/21/1945
Edsel Ray Frame, Sr – Navy – Stationed on the USS Missouri when the Japanese surrounded, and treaty was signed.
Thank you to the Alleghany Highlands Genealogical Society for their help in compiling this list. We honor all these men and their families today.
