The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice (22 page)
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Authors: Alex Kershaw
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.
