Alexandria resident Bill McNamara, standing second from left, and his Stars and Stripes team on Omaha Beach in Normandy three days after the D-Day invasion in June 1944. Photo Contributed
It was 80 years ago when Bill McNamara joined the National Guard in 1936. He was just 15 years old then and by the time he was 23, he was the youngest major in Europe, working for the Stars and Stripes newspaper and leading a six-man detachment across Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944.
“What I saw that day was unbelievable,” said McNamara not long before the 2014 70th anniversary of what would be the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place. “We weren’t expected to come out alive.”
McNamara is 95 years old now but for the longtime Alexandria resident and other World War II veterans, June 6, 1944 — D-Day — will never be forgotten.
On that day, 150,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. The landings marked a turning point in WWII that changed the course of history.
The Alexandria-Caen Sister Cities Committee will commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day attacks with a lecture and Market Square event to honor the sacrifice of American troops and celebrate its sister city partnership with the city of Caen in France.
On Thursday, June 2, Senior Historian to the Secretary of Defense Tom Christianson will present “U.S. Rangers at Pointe du Hoc” at 7 p.m. at the Lyceum. The retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army taught European history at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point and was military history professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, as well as served as aide-de-camp to the Commander Land Forces Southern Europe.
The 6th annual D-Day commemoration events on Market Square will take place on Saturday, June 4. The Old Guard Color Guard and Fife and Drum Corps will participate in the services, which will begin with a remembrance ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Also on hand will be WWII re-enactors, a recreated WWII Navy Recruiting Center and a 1940s swing band. Attendees will also hear a live re-enactment of a press conference by Gen. Omar Bradley.
Mayor Allison Silberberg and state Del. Mark Levine will recite “Voices of D-Day” readings, reflections from veterans about their experiences on D-Day. The event is free and open to all. Children are encouraged to attend.
“Every year this event and our other projects are getting bigger and better,” said Alexandria-Caen Sister Cities Committee chair Jennifer Reading. “We even have the CSPAN-American History Channel coming to video the Thursday lecture so it is exciting to see that evolution. “
A full schedule of activities is available at dday2016.eventbrite.com. For more information, contact Julia Sylla at 202-203-0177 or email AlexandriaCaenSisterCities@gmail.com. www.alexandriacaen.wordpress.com.