Senator Warner paid tribute to Elisha "Ray" Nance today who died on Sunday at the age of 94.

Mr. Nance was the last surviving member of the famed "Bedford Boys," the group of soldiers from Bedford, Virginia, who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day in June 1944.

The Roanoke Times wrote in its tribute:

On June 6, 1944, 19 of the 34 Bedford men in Company A of the 116th Infantry were killed on Omaha Beach. The death toll is considered one of the largest per capita suffered by any American community during the invasion, a fact instrumental in establishing the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford.

Here is Senator Warner's tribute, as entered into the Congressional Record:

Mr. President, I wish to pay appropriate tribute today to an American hero – Elisha “Ray” Nance – of Bedford, Virginia. 

He passed-away last Sunday at the age of 94, and memorial services are being held today.

Mister Nance was the last surviving member of what’s come to be known as “The Bedford Boys” – members of Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division.  

Mister Nance was among 38 National Guardsmen from the close-knit community of Bedford who were called to active service in World War Two. 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, close-knit town of 32-hundred 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.

Mr. President, 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. And a grateful Commonwealth and nation thanks them for their lifetime of support for Ray Nance – a hero – and the last of “The Bedford Boys.”

Thank you, Mr. President. 

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