![]() ![]() After 8 months of 2 co-presidents, In May 2013, April Cheek-Messier was named the president of The National D-Day Memorial Foundation. Presently, the foundation is headquartered in Bedford. The idea had been looked at, but support for its completion did not exist prior to the fiftieth anniversary of the invasion in 1994. The National D-Day Memorial Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3)organization that had its beginnings as a small committee in 1988 with the prospect of building a memorial to dedicate the sacrifices made by the Allied Forces on D-Day. Spielberg Theater, in honor of his father, a World War II veteran. ![]() The movie's director, Steven Spielberg, helped fund the memorial, including funding for the creation of the Arnold M. The losses by the soldiers from Bedford were chronicled in the best-selling book The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw, and helped inspire the movie Saving Private Ryan. The Bedford Boys included three sets of brothers: twins Roy and Ray Stevens, with Ray killed during the landing while Roy survived Clyde and Jack Powers, with Jack killed and Clyde wounded but surviving and Bedford and Raymond Hoback, both killed. The town and the "Bedford Boys" proportionately suffered the greatest losses of any American town during the campaign, thus inspiring the United States Congress to establish the D-Day memorial in Bedford. Four more died during the rest of the Normandy campaign. Company A was decimated within hours of landing, and nineteen of the men were killed during the first day of the invasion. Thirty-four Virginia National Guard soldiers from Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, based in the town of Bedford prior to the war, were part of D-Day. The "Bedford Boys" and the location of the memorial Of those, more than half are from outside of Virginia. About 60,000 people have visited the memorial each year. It officially opened on June 6, 2001, with 15,000 people present, including then-President George W. The memorial, bordering the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwestern Virginia, is an area of over 50 acres (200,000 m 2) that overlooks the town of Bedford. ![]() However, its scope is international in that it states, "In Tribute to the valor, fidelity and sacrifice of Allied Forces on D-Day, June 6, 1944" and commends all Allied Armed Forces during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, during World War II. It serves as the national memorial for American D-Day veterans. The National D-Day Memorial is a war memorial located in Bedford, Virginia. War memorial in Bedford, Virginia, United States National D-Day Memorial pool with Overlord Arch ![]()
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