Bedford: The Town They Left Behind

Like the young men in many small American towns during and after the Great Depression, the boys of Bedford, Virginia, joined their local National Guard unit. They were paid one dollar for every weekend training session - a lot of money in 1941 - and they were given a snazzy uniform to wear that pleased the ladies. Not a bad deal. What they couldn't have foreseen was that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor and draw the United States - and their little Guard unit - into a war that everyone hoped would end all wars. In no time at all, these fresh-faced soldiers were torn from the arms of their girlfriends and new wives and found themselves in training camps, learning to fight for their country. Eventually these boys who had not yet seen a minute of battle would become the first to hit the beaches of Normandy on what we now know as D-Day. An ocean away, their families gathered around radios listening for news. Eventually a wave of telegrams arrived informing Bedford how great a sacrifice it h