“I can’t even see your grave except in a dream. Now my mind wanders thousands of miles across the mighty deep. To a lonely little mound in a foreign land where the body of my dear soldier boy might be lain away. This tired, homesick soldier boy who attended church in Bedford all his life. He was not buried in a nice casket, flowers and funeral procession. His dear body was laid to rest in a blood-soaked uniform. Maybe it was draped in an American flag. There will not be any more cruel wars where you have gone, dear Frank…The old rugged cross has a two-fold meaning for me, for my own dear boy shed his precious blood like Jesus on the cross at Calvary… A dear price to pay.”
– Mother of Frank Draper Jr. of Bedford, VA, who died on D-Day.

“When you land in Normandy, you will have only one friend:  God.”
– General James M. Gavin to paratroopers in training.