In the city of Bedford, Virginia, on Sunday, June 11, 1944, 14-year-old Lucille Hoback was preparing to go to mass with his family. "We then received the first telegram announcing that my brother Bedford had been killed. On Monday, we received the second telegram announcing that Raymond was missing.
A month later, a package arrived, coming from "somewhere in France", a soldier wrote to us that he had found Raymond's Bible on the beach, with name and address. He said that he didn't know if Raymond was dead or alive, but that in any case his family would want his Bible back.
In this Bible, one could see the mark of the belt of the bag. The book was not wet or deteriorated; it was probably wrapped in plastic. Someone told us that he had been injured, placed with others on the beach waiting to be evacuated to a ship, but that the tide might have covered and drowned them.
Raymond was declared dead a year later and his body was never found. Harold Baumgarten, who later became a doctor, told us that he had seen a bullet touch Bedford and then ricochet on him Harold by hurting him.
Some of those present knew little more than families. Roy Stevens was never able to find his twin brother Ray. "I questioned many of those who were next to him, I was told to go to the cemetery. I knew then that Ray was dead. I got so shaken up that I started volunteering for anything. Colonel Canham calmed me down. "The war will not be won with one man. Everyone will take part in it."