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waterfall in Bedford County, summer 1941. Bettie Wilkes Hooper.
    Harold Edward Wilkes, one of the fortunate few to return home. Eloise Rogers.
    Frank Draper Jr., superb athlete and even better soldier. Warren Draper.
    Glenwood “Dickie” Overstreet, who would be badly wounded on D-Day, one of the most sociable and popular Bedford boys. Beulah Witt.
    Dickie Overstreet, center, with family shortly before shipping out . Beulah Witt.
    Clyde Powers and Jack Powers on furlough in Bedford, summer 1941. Eloise Rogers.
    Bedford boys at camp A. P. Hill in Virginia, 1941. Earl Parker combs his hair at center of front row. Pride Wingfield.
    “He was all soldier.” Captain Taylor N. Fellers, the Bedford boys’ hometown commander. Bertie Woodford.
    “We shared everything.” Sergeants Roy and Ray Stevens, twin brothers. Roy Stevens and Virginia Historical Association.
    “Exact opposites.” Brothers Raymond and Bedford Hoback. Both would be killed on Omaha Beach. Lucille Hoback Boggess and Virginia Historical Association.
    Leslie Abbott, the first of the Bedford boys to come home in a casket. U.S. Army.
    Wallace “Snake Eyes” Carter, Company A’s best dice player. U.S. Army.
    John Clifton, Company A’s “Casanova” who had Cherokee Indian ancestors. U.S. Army.
    Charles Fizer survived D-Day only to die a few days later in the hedgerows of Normandy. U.S. Army.
    Nicholas Gillaspie, the mild-mannered Southern gentleman. U.S. Army.
    “He just liked the dirt.” Quiet and deeply religious farmboy Gordon Henry White. U.S. Army.
    Andrew Coleman, the first Bedford boy casualty. U.S. Army.
    Clifton Lee, fiercely patriotic and thought to have died beside several of his friends within minutes of landing on Omaha Beach. U.S. Army.
    Earl Parker, the only father among the Bedford boys. Mary Daniel Heilig.
    Earl Parker on maneuvers in North Carolina a few months before Pearl Harbor. Pride Wingfield.
    Company B from Lynchburg, Virginia. The boys from this company would land just after the Bedford boys in the second wave on Omaha Beach. Picture taken at Fort Meade, February 1941. Seventeen-year-old Bob Sales kneels at front. Bob Sales.
    Ace poker player and Company A mess sergeant Earl Newcomb. Elva Newcomb.
    Robert “Tony” Marsico, one of the few who landed on Omaha and then came home. Laura Burnette.
    “He had the prettiest dimples.” Weldon Rosazza, one of the Bedford boys who enjoyed great success with English women. Ellen Quarles.
    “116 Yankees.” Bedford boys who played for the undefeated “116 Yankees” in 1943. Photograph taken in London, summer 1943. Left to right: Elmere Wright, Tony Marsico, Pride Wingfield, Frank Draper Jr. Pride Wingfield.
    E.T.O. World Series Baseball Champions, 1943. Victorious “116 Yankees” players with uniformed Colonel Charles Canham, center. Middle row: right to left— Bedford boys Draper, Wright, Marsico. Three of the team would die on Omaha Beach in a matter of months. Bettie Wilkes Hooper.

    Lieutenant Ray Nance, the only surviving officer who landed on D-Day with Company A. Ray Nance.
    Company A’s officers a few weeks before D-Day. Left to right: Lieutenant Ray Nance, Lieutenant Edward Gearing, Lieutenant John Clements, and First Sergeant John Wilkes. Ray Nance.
    John Wilkes and John Schenk in England before D-Day. Ivylyn Hardy.
    “Who says England doesn’t get snow?” John Schenk, far right, and friends standing outside their barracks, winter 1942–43. Ivylyn Hardy.
    Pride Wingfield and John Schenk in Ivybridge, England, summer 1943. Ivylyn Hardy.
    “We really were overpaid, oversexed and over there.” Dickie Overstreet, in uniform on right, with two English “gals,” a Company A buddy, and English children outside a swimming pool, summer 1943. Beulah Witt.

    The Bedford boys leave Ivybridge bound for Omaha Beach, spring 1944. Allen Huddleston.
    Jack Powers, just before being selected to join the elite 29th Division Rangers, England, 1943. Eloise Rogers.
    “God was looking