[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10286]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    REMEMBERING ELISHA ``RAY'' NANCE

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wish to pay appropriate tribute today to 
an American hero--Elisha ``Ray'' Nance--of Bedford, VA.
  He passed away last Sunday at the age of 94, and memorial services 
are being held today.
  Mr. Nance was the last surviving member of what has come to be known 
as ``The Bedford Boys''--members of Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th 
Division.
  Mr. Nance was among 38 National Guardsmen from the close-knit 
community of Bedford who were called to active service in World War II. 
On June 6, 1944, 19 were killed when they landed on Omaha Beach at the 
start of the D-day invasion. Two more died later.
  ``We Bedford boys,'' Nance recalled, ``we competed to be in the first 
wave. We wanted to be there. We wanted to be the first on the beach,'' 
he would write as he recovered from his own severe wounds.
  Bedford recorded 21 casualties out of 38 men who served, all from the 
same small town of 3,200 people located in central Virginia.
  That overwhelming loss led to Bedford's selection as the site of the 
National D-day Memorial--a worthy project I was honored to support, 
both as a private citizen and as Virginia Governor.
  But Ray Nance's public service did not end with his military service.
  To honor his fallen brethren, Nance returned home to Bedford and 
helped reorganize Company A of the Virginia National Guard, and served 
as its first commander. He then built a career as a rural postal 
carrier, and served in the Elks.
  At the end of his life, he was a proud resident of the Elks National 
Home in Bedford.
  In recent years, he visited the D-day Memorial often to help teach 
younger generations about the service, courage and sacrifice 
demonstrated by ``The Bedford Boys'' and others of the ``greatest 
generation.''
  Ray Nance's life and example demonstrate the very best qualities--and 
the responsibilities--of citizenship.
  My thoughts and prayers are with his widow Alpha and their children, 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A grateful Commonwealth and 
Nation thanks them for their lifetime of support for Ray Nance--a 
hero--and the last of ``The Bedford Boys.''

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