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| Sgt. Frank Draper never made it to Omaha Beach on D-Day. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70732764/frank-price-draper https://www.dday.org/2013/06/06/our-d-day-fallen-sergeant-frank-p-draper/ http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/omaha/attack.htm |
Frank P. Draper, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 16, 1918 in Virginia. His parents Frank and Mary were also both born in Virginia. His father worked as a woolen mill washer and later as a weaver in Bedford. Frank had two younger brothers and one younger sister. Frank was a star athlete in high school, playing football, basketball, baseball, and track. By 1940 Frank had completed four years of high school and was working as a weigher in a textile mill while living at home.
He was serving in the Virginia National Guard when it was federalized into the US Army in February 1941. Frank became a tech sergeant in Company A, 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. He was also on the Regiment's baseball team that was one of the best in England. The 116th IR was given the unenviable assignment of going in as the first wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Many soldiers in the 116th IR were from Virginia and a great concentration of those from the small town of Bedford served in Company A.
On June 6, 1944, while in a landing craft heading for the beach, Sgt. Draper was hit by an incoming shell and immediately killed.
By the end of D-Day only 18 of Company A's 230 men were unhurt. The small 3,200 strong community of Bedford lost 22 men in Normandy, 19 on D-Day. It was the greatest loss per size of hometown from all of the war. The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford commemorates this sacrifice.
His grave is at Greenwood Cemetery in Bedford, Virginia.
Last year on this date I profiled Navy Cross hero carrier pilot Andrew Ham, USS Bennington. You can read about Andrew here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
That is not T/SGT Frank Draper, that's dickie overstreet.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know. I got the photo from Frank Draper's findagrave.com memorial. Can you provide me with a link to a correct photo? Don Milne
DeleteHo appena finito di leggere il bellissimo libro di Alex Kershaw "The Bedford Boys". Tra quelle pagine รจ come se avessi realmente vissuto con i ragazzi di Bedford caduti a Omaha il 6 giugno '44.... Ho conosciuto Frank Draper, i fratelli Hoback, Ray Stevens, Taylor Fellers... I loro compagni, che ebbero la fortuna di tornare a casa, poterono, in qualche modo, tornare a vivere una vita normale, si sposarono, ebbero dei figli, ebbero un lavoro, invecchiarono... I ragazzi morti a Omaha, invece, non ebbero nulla... come cristallizzati in un 'eterna, inutile giovinezza... At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
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