LIVE: D-Day Commemoration Ceremony

Added: 2026-06-08

[00:00:00]the English Channel, caring for wounded soldiers.

[00:00:04]On June 16th, 1944, LST 543 landed on Omaha Beach, delivering tanks, troops, and supplies.

[00:00:15]After a storm stranded the ship, it was repaired in Portsmouth and resumed resupply missions.

[00:00:24]Post war, Jim used the GI Bill to earn a degree in chemical engineering and had a long career with the Atomic Energy Commission. Let us honor James Baron Frank Conn.

[00:00:51]Colonel Frank Con was born in 1925 in Breastlau, Germany, now Rocklau, Poland, and came to the United States with his family in 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution.

[00:01:09]He was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Battle of the Bulge, the Brineland, and Central Europe campaigns, eventually meeting Russian forces at the Ela River.

[00:01:23]After the war, he was assigned as sergeant of the guard for highranking Nazi prisoners who would later be tried in the second Nermberg trial.

[00:01:34]Colonel Conn went on to serve for 35 years in the United States Army with tours in Korea and Vietnam.

[00:01:43]Let us honor Colonel Frank Conn.

[00:01:53]Dixon Hempill Mr. Dixon Hempill joined the Navy in 1943 and served as an officer, a turret officer aboard the USS Little Rock.

[00:02:10]Later in the Pacific, he served aboard the USS Butner and USS LCI 514, training Taiwanese sailors in Shanghai.

[00:02:23]He retired as a naval intelligence lieutenant commander and later became a distance runner, completing 12 marathons and setting personal bests well into his 70s. Let us honor Dixon Hempill.

[00:02:48]One more round of applause for these extraordinary World War II veterans and for the nearly 2 million Allied service members who took part in Operation Overlord to liberate Nazi occupied Europe.

[00:03:20]We will now begin the wreath presentations in memory of those who served and sacrificed.

[00:03:26]We especially remember the nearly 54,000 Allied forces killed during Operation Overlord.

[00:03:36]Representing the United States of America are World War II veterans, Mr. James Ellner Baron, Colonel Frank Conn, Mr. Dixon Hempill.

[00:04:27]Representing the National Park Service is Dr. Kevin Greece.

[00:04:42]Representing Friends of the National World War II Memorial, Jane Dropa and Friends resident historian Alex Kershaw, author of The Bedford Boys and the First Wave, representing ing Allied Armed Forces Air Commodore Amy Beck, Australia.

[00:05:18]Chief Warrant Officer Branco Boskov, Belgium.

[00:05:23]Rear Admiral Christian Monahan, Canada.

[00:05:27]Lieutenant Colonel Henrik Grerson, Denmark.

[00:05:32]Colonel Jean Baptiste, De Cologne, France.

[00:05:37]Captain Eric Deond Lumen, the Netherlands.

[00:05:42]Commander Timothy Gore, New Zealand.

[00:05:46]Colonel Morton Nikolai Christensen, Norway.

[00:05:50]Air Commodore Nicola Thomas, United Kingdom.

[00:06:00]representing a grateful nation in memory of more than 225,000 Allied service members who were killed, wounded, or went missing during Operation Overlord, including 9,000 Allied troops killed or wounded on D-Day are Carol Bodner and her husband Elliot Bodner.

[00:06:28]Carol is daughter of D-Day veteran the late Herman Zichek and chaplain Kevin Trimble. Oh, Please rise for the playing of taps.

[00:08:37]This concludes today's ceremony. Thank you for joining us this morning as we remember the courage, sacrifice, and lasting legacy of the greatest generation.

[00:11:55]Oh.