Submitted by Edward Munster
(May 27, 2025) — The Haddam Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony was held on May 26, 2025. Ron Annino, who is one of the principals at the Haddam Veterans Museum, gave the major address at the Memorial Day service in Higganum.
He spoke of the extreme sacrifice of the town of Bedford, Virginia. This town holds a profound place in history due to the Bedford Boys, a group of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the D-Day invasion of World War II. Bedford suffered the highest per capita loss of any U.S. community on June 6, 1944, when nineteen young men from this small town lost their lives in the assault on Omaha Beach in a matter of minutes. Ron Annino’s speech appears below, in its entirety.
“Good morning, everyone. Memorial Day: What does it mean and why do we celebrate it? I believe it is the most important day of the year. It is the day we honor those who not only sacrifice their lives for this country, but also for other nations across the world.
I would like speak about the sacrifice the small town of Bedford, Virginia made during World War II. A group of young boys and men joined the Army National Guard during the Depression to earn a dollar a day for each drill. At the time of their enlistment, World War II had not started, so they probably never considered that they would be called to defend their country. Shortly after the United States entered the war, their unit was activated. They were deployed to England where they trained for two years to prepare for D-Day. I will now quote from the book, “The Bedford Boys.”…