1. StopOne: Bob Slaughter
 Up untilthe late 1980’s, therewasnot any mention of a memorial
commemoratingD-Day untilBob Slaughter, a veteran of D-Day
from Roanoke, talked about how he wanted one.
 Eventually, Congresschose to place the memorialhere, but chose
to NOT make it a national park. The National D-Day Memorialis a
nonprofiteducationalfoundation.
 The “Peanuts” cartoonist, Charles Schulz, (you know, Snoopy?)
donated onemillion dollarsto the project and accepted leadership
of the nationalfundraisingcampaign to build the memorialuntil
his death in February 2000.
 On June6, 2001 theMemorialofficially opened to the public.
 Over 24,000peopleattended that day, includingseveralhundred
D-Day veteransand PresidentGeorge W. Bush.

2. Now we will walk to the statue that commemoratesa special group of
veterans.
StopTwo: Homage
 On D-Day, the town of Bedford lostmoremen percentagewise
than any other in the United States.
 That is one of the many reasonsas to why the National D-Day
Memorialis located here in Bedford.
 Bedford lost19 men on D-Day and three morelater on in the war.
They were brothers, sons, cousins, and friendsto those at home
and whom they foughtwith in the war.
 Interesting Fact: Four of the Bedford Boyswerea partof the team
that won the European Theater of Operations World Series in
1943.
 The Statue Itself
 This statue is symbolic; it representscommunitieslike Bedford
that had to grieve for community membersthat didn’tmake it
home.

3.  There were 33 sets of brothers from the 29th Division 116th
Regiment Company A, specifically three from Bedford: the
Powers, Hoback, and Stevens brothers.
 Only two of the six of these siblings returned homeafter the
war—oneof those siblings was Roy Stevens.
o Ray and Roy Stevens came from a farm family of 14
children. The twinsgrew up duringthe hard times of the
Great Depression. Bothhad to drop outof school to help
their family. Like many twins, they were close and did many
things together, buyinga 130-acrefarm and even dating
twin sisters for a while. Beforethey climbed aboard their
landingcraft in preparation for D-Day, Roy recalled that
they would shake handswhen they met again on shore, but
Ray ignored him. Looking back, Roy believed that Ray must
have had a feeling he would notmakeit home. Roy returned
home to Bedford in August1945 withoutRay and still
bought the farm they had dreamed about. Today, our
victory garden to the right o the education tent is named in
honor of the Stevens family.

4. Now we will moveto the start of our Memorial’s story of D-Day in the
English Garden.
StopThree: The Start of the Garden Walkway
Overview of What Led to D-Day
 Hitler, the leader of the Nazis in Germany began taking over other
countriessuch as Poland and France
 The U.S. did not get involved untilthe Japanesebombed Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941.
 GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower was given the task of formingthe
largest invasion fleet in history in order to have an amphibious
landingon the northern coast of Francecalled Operation
Overlord. If Operation Overlord wassuccessful, the landingwould
be the starting pointfor the Allies to start taking back Europe
from the Nazis.
 In Augustof 1944, theAllies freed Francefrom the Germansby
capturingParis and it all began with D-Day.
Why is it called the ReynoldsGarden?
 This garden is called the ReynoldsGarden named after Richard S.
ReynoldsSenior. He wasan industrialist-poetwho foresaw his

5. country’sneed for aluminum. Heplaced his fortuneand
reputation in the balance to produceenoughaluminum for the
U.S. to build and sustain the air force that gave the Allies
overwhelmingair-superiority for D-Day.
Focus of the Garden
 The garden focuseson the activities and planningthat took place
before then SupremeCommander Eisenhower issued theD-Day
Order.
 This is the patch of the SupremeHeadquartersof the Allied
Expeditionary Force.
 These guysdid all of the planningfor D-Day in England, which is
where our troopsleft from to get to France on D-Day.
 Our garden is set up like a typicalgarden in England, but in the
shape of the S.H.A.E.F. patch.
 In frontof the S.H.A.E.F. patch on the back wall is a rainbow of
flowers, just like on the patch. The big bunchblue in that rainbow
was there to representthe hopefor the future. The rest of the
rainbow was for the colors of the flags of all of the countries that
helped on D-Day. The black represents the bad guysand how they
didn’tlet the peopledo what they wanted. The shield and the

6. sword represented how we weregoing to fight until the bad guys
stopped doingwhat they were doingto the peopleof Europe.
StopFour: Along the Left Side of the Garden
 LieutenantGeneral Omar N. Bradley—AssaultCommander;
commanded U.S. ground forces.
 AdmiralSir Bertam H. Ramsey—Allied Navy Commander from
England; commanded thenavalphase of the Allied landingsin
Normandy

7.  Air Chief MarshalSir Arthur William Tedder—Deputy Supreme
Commander (Second in Command to Eisenhower)

StopFive: Eisenhower
 GeneralEisenhower from America was the main planner of D-Day.
He’s situated under the house wehave in our garden.
 This houserepresents the Southwick House where the planners
actually met, and where Eisenhower madethe finaldecision to
launch D-Day on June6th.
Ask: How do you thinkGeneral Eisenhower lookshere? Stern?Lecturing?
 In this statue, Eisenhower, also known as“Ike,” is discussingfly-
fishing with a Lieutenantof the 101st AirborneDivision shortly
before they deployed.
 Ike knew he wassendingthese soldiers into danger and knew a
lot of them would notmake it home. So, instead of lecturing them,
he decided to connectwith them, and this particular soldier had
an interest in common with Ike: fly-fishing.

8.  GeneralEisenhower used a toy company in England to create the
map for the invasion.
 The map wasn’tputtogether untilthe day before D-Day because
Eisenhower didn’twantthe top-secret mission to fall into the
wronghands.
 He even designed the map as a puzzle. If you look at the top of the
house he’s standing in, you can see a replica of it.
StopSix: Along the Right Side of the Garden
 Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery—BritishAssault
Commander; led the 21st Army Group on D-Day

9.  Air Chief MarshalSir Trafford L. Leigh-Mallory—Allied Air
Commander; Air Commander in Chief of the Allied Expeditionary
Force
 LieutenantGeneral Bedell“Beetle” Smith—Chief of Staff; who
would later serveas U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and
Direct the CIA.
StopSeven: The Southern Wall of the Garden
 The plaqueson this wall are in honor of the Infantry Regiments,
which served at D-Day.
 The big plaque here has Eisenhower’sOrder of the Day on it,
which wasgiven to each troop as he filed into his transportand
landingcraft on D-Day. Eisenhower delivered this order to the
troopsin order to encourage them to perseveredespite the fact
that Eisenhower believed there wasa real possibility the invasion
might fail. He even wrote a note taking fullresponsibility if it
failed, but luckily he didn’tneed to use it.
Have one child be Eisenhower, get help fromchaperone to choose which
child and have themread the Order of the Day. Whenthey are through

10. ASK: do youthink thisOrder motivated the troopsto do their best even
though they might not have the best circumstances?
 This Order of the Day went out to every single troop that day in an
effortto pump up thetroops to get the job done.
StopEight: The Bronzed Battle Map ofthe Invasion
 Point outwhere Company A landed on the bronzemap, as well as
other Virginia companiessuch as Lynchburg’sCompany B or
Roanoke’sCompany D.
Now we are going to moveout of the planningphaseand transition to
the actual invasion on June6, 1944.
StopNine: The Exterior of Gray Plaza
 The Gray Plazais named after the HonorableEmon T. Gray who
served in the Navy in the Pacific Theater of WWII and later served
in the Virginia Senate and exemplified the qualities the Memorial
exists to honor: valor, fidelity, and sacrifice.
 Valor means to be brave. Fidelity meansto be loyaland friendly.
Sacrifice meansto give one’slife for another.

11. Tell them: whenyouwalk across the bridge, lookfor statuesof soldiers
that show each of the Memorial values. Hint: Each value is found in two
different statuesaround the bridge.
 Gray Plazasignifies the landingand fighting stage of the invasion.
The plazais set up into fivesections that representthe five
beaches on D-Day.
 On June6, 1944, troopslanded in Normandy, Franceon fivecode-
named beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.
 There were many countriesinvolved on D-Day, and if you turn
around towardsthe garden you can see the 4,413 namesof the
soldiers that landed on the beaches of Normandy that day and
paid the ultimate sacrifice.
 There were Americans, which you can see to the left, but there
were soldiersfrom other countries, which you can see to the right.
Wehave all of the names of the soldiers that died on D-Day on the
plaquesalong the walls.
 There are so many American flagsbecause of one beach in
particular: Omaha. Omaha beach was the deadliestbeach on D-
Day. Omaha beach was also where most of the boysfrom Bedford
in Company A landed on D-Day.

12.  The National D-Day MemorialFoundation worked for seven years
with governmentaland military officials of the twelve Allied
Expeditionary Forcenations to confirm by name, nation, and
service the some4,413 peoplewho died on D-Day.
Turn to face the arch.
 On D-Day when the soldierslanded, they did not know how long
they were going to go without supplies. Their goal was to capture
the beach so they could get their ships with suppliesat least to
there; however, they had to travel all the way inland to Germany if
they wanted to end the war.
 As they traveled inland they would get farther away from their
supplies. So, they woreor carried everything they might need for
a few months. Soldiers worewool uniformsthat would keep them
warm if they were wet or in the winters, even though the wool
would makethem super hot in the summer.
 They worehelmets to protect their heads from shrapnel, or
debris, notbullets.
 They had a gas mask in case gas got into the air like it did in World
War I and a canteen to hold his water.

13.  Thirty-six soldiersand all of their gear had to fit into a Higgins
boat which carried them some of the way across the English
Channelfrom the big navy ships.
Let’s swim up through the channel up to the Higgins Boat.
StopTen: The Higgins Boat
 The soldierswere crammed in pretty tight with 36 soldiers in one
of these boats. The boats werenot madeof the nice thick granite
oursis made of. Instead, they weremade of quarter inch plywood,
which rocked and rolled with the ocean. As you can imagine, a lot
of the soldiersgot seasick, but packed in so tightly they couldn’t
get to the edge. The soldiers would barf in their helmets and wait
for a momentto dump itout. Then their helmet would go right
back on their heads.
 The frontof the Higgins boat, or LCVP, would drop down into the
water and the soldierswould run out. Now, because the invasion
began from the water, soldierswore a life belt that would help
keep them afloat. Do you think it actually helped them float even
though they wereweighed down with all of their gear? No. A lot
of the soldiersdrowned beforethey even got to the beaches on D-

14. Day, which you can see represented by the man right on the edge
of the water.
 A second obstacle that prevented someof the soldiersfrom
reaching the beaches wasthe hedgehog that you can see in our
scene. The hedgehogs were meantto rip open the bottoms of
boats, which wouldn’tbe too difficultin our thin wooden Higgins
boats. Sometimes the enemy would attach minesto the hedgehogs
so they would blow up when a boat touched them. Because of this,
the Allied forces understood that it wascrucial to land at low tide
so they could see obstacles such as the hedgehogs in the water.
 Another obstacle wasthe “German Wall,” where the Germans
built mines and obstacles all along the Normandy coastas a
defensemechanism—morethan 6 million in all. The wall behind
the bridge that hides our restrooms waspoured in the style of
German bunkers. The bunkerswerewhere the German soldiers
were able to concentrate machine gun fireonto the beaches.
These bunkerscould take a direct hit from navalgunsand remain
intact.

15.  The sculpturescaling the wall representsvalor, fidelity, and
sacrifice that the Memorial seeks to honor. Some believe it was
symbolizingof the climbing over the cliffs to victory.
 The sculpturesof the troopsin the water werenot created as
depictionsof any particular soldier. Onesculpturerepresents
valor (bravery), one representsfidelity (loyalty and friendship),
and the third representssacrifice (givingone’s life for another).
 The onethat representssacrifice is holding a Bible, which
resembles of oneof the Bedford Boys, Raymond Hoback, who died
and his Bible wasfound on the beach.
 Raymond received aBible from his mother as a Christmas gift
when he was eighteen. Receiving your own bible was a rite of
passage, and he took it seriously. He kept his Bible close at hand
and took it with him when the Bedford NationalGuard Company
was mobilized in 1941. FollowingD-Day, therewerereportsof
fierce fighting as the Allies moved deeper into France. However,
the telegrams began to roll in on July 15th 1944. Raymond’s
brother, Bedford, waskilled in action and Raymond wasmissing
in action. He was never found. Severalof his company mates
reported seeing him lying on the beach near water’s edge

16. wounded or dead. He, like dozensof others, was taken by the tide
into the sea. A few dayslater a package arrived at the Hoback’s
house here in Bedford. Itwas a book sent by a soldier from West
Virginia who had landed a day after Raymond had goneashore. He
wrote that “While walkingon the beach on D-Day plusone(the
day after D-Day)…Icame upon this Bible, and as most any person
would do I picked it up from the sandst keep it from being
destroyed.” It wasthe Bible Raymond’smother had given him. It
was her only tangible connection to her missingson. She
treasured it for the rest of her life, as his sister, Lucille, treasures it
today.
We’ll have a few minutesto cross the bridge and take in the scene of the
valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the troops, but first wewill walk over to
our memorialto the water aspect of the invasion.
StopEleven: The Anchor and Coast GuardBell
 The bell and the anchor we have represented at the Memorial
representthe Coast Guard and the Navy of the Allied forces, who
played a very importantrole on D-Day.

17.  The Coast Guard and Navy shipstransported the allied soldiersto
the middleof the English Channelso they could board their
Higgins boats. They also shot their big gunstowardsthe shore to
try to eliminate the German enemy that was stationed on the
beaches.
 Most of those gentlemen mademany tripsback and forth from the
boats that day, each time risking their lives more and more.
 The codename for the water partof the invasion wasOperation
Neptune, and Operation Neptuneplayed ahuge role in the entire
invasion: Operation Overlord.
The waterfallwe have there did not exist on the beaches of Normandy,
but is there to representthe chaos of the beaches on D-Day. There were
dyingpeople, explosions, gunshots, and screams of the wounded.It
would be almost impossible to hear your neighbor. So instead of trying
to talk as we cross, now wewill give you two minutesto walk across the
bridge and take in the scene on the beach. Remember to be respectful,
as this scene representsthe valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the troopson
D-Day.
StopTwelve: The Bridge

18. Let the kids have two minutesto walk across the bridge and take in the
scene.
StopThirteen: The L3 Plane
 Planessimilar to this onewere used duringOperation Overlord.
Fighting land and sea were crucial to the invasion, but it is
importantto remember the differenttypesof air power that were
used, too.
 The airplanewe have displayed atthe Memorialis nicknamed the
“grasshopper” because when landingit hops like a grasshopper.
For D-Day, the planeshad black and white stripes on them so the
Allied knew they weretheir planes. The planesplayed an
importantrole even before D-Day itself. They dropped
paratroopersin the night before D-Day to try to gain ground
inland. The planewe have, though, is a spy plane. It fits two
people: the pilot and a spy, who would look for enemy groupings.
You can also see on the top of our arch the samecolors
represented. Asthe planeswere flyingover the townsof
Normandy they probably saw a lot of rooftops, which is what the

19. black and white things on the top of the arch are also
representing.
 Another version of air power: The only group of African
Americansto land on June6, 1944 waspartof the 320th Barrage
Balloon Battalion. BarrageBalloonswere filled with helium and
designed to protect ships and troops from air bombings. The steel
cables that supported the balloonscould cut off an enemy plane’s
wing.
Now we march to victory! Have the kids march with you up to the
archway.
StopFourteen: The Arch
 Our arch is 44 feet 6 inches tall symbolizingthe year of D-Day,
which was1944and the day of D-Day, June 6th. The Arch was
chosen at the Memorialto symbolizevictory because after
entering and freeingParis, the peoplecelebrated the troopswith a
paradethat included marchingthrough the Arc de Triomphe. Ask:
Who knows what triumph means?

20.  That triumphdid come at a cost, however. The statue here, The
Final Tribute, honorsthe valor and fidelity of fallen troops, and is
obviousof their sacrifice. It is a representation of the way shallow,
temporary graveswere marked duringWWII: soldier’srifle
upsidedown (later taken for someoneelse to use), his helmet
placed on top, and dog tag hanging on the hat as well as a dogtag
in the troop’steeth. They placed a tag in the teeth because the
teeth were the last to decay on a body, and if the dog tag stayed in
the teeth they could identify the body.
 This ultimate sacrifice and the valor and fidelity that came with it
are what our Memorialtries to represent. If you look at the seal
under the arch, you will see the lion that representsthe valor or
bravery, the dogthat representsfriendship or fidelity, and the
pelican that representssacrifice.
Now, let’s march through the arch to France. Have the studentsline up
behind you and march them through the arch, stopping them just
outsidethe benches on the southern side.
 There were 12 countriesthat participated in the Allied D-Day
invasion. All of the flags behind the arch representeach of these

21. countries. From right to left they are: the United States, Australia,
Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Poland, and theUnited Kingdom.
Tell them to feel free to take picturesand ask if they have any questions.
Thank them for listening and say your goodbyes.