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Episode #578 of Hometown Heroes, airing May 30 – June 2, 2019, includes the address 175,000 Allied military personnel heard from General Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 6, 1944, and the memories of four men who parachuted behind enemy lines into occupied France on D-Day.

Of the 13,200 paratroopers who blanketed the sky over France in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, only about 300 were “pathfinders,” specially trained to go in early and use some unique strategies to try to point the way for those who followed. One of those pathfinders was Maynard “Beamy” Beamesderfer of the 101st Airborne Division’s 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, who shared his story on Hometown Heroes in 2012. After Beamesderfer’s passing in 2016, the hall where he often gathered with fellow airborne veterans in El Paso, TX was renamed in his honor. You can read his obituary here.
You’ll also hear recollections from Angel Romero, who jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment on D-Day, and passed away a few months after sharing his story on Hometown Heroes. You can read Mr. Romero’s obituary here. Beamesderfer and Romero appeared together on episode #215 of Hometown Heroes in 2012, and you can listen to their original interviews here. Not too far from Beamesderfer Hall in El Paso, you will find a park now named in honor of Bob Chisolm, who is one of roughly 300 Americans with the unique distinction of receiving the Combat Infantry Badge for World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. You’ll also hear Chisolm’s D-Day memories with the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and you can access his complete original interview here.

Finally, this episode presents excerpts from Tom Rice’s D-Day story. Rice, now 97, plans to jump again in France for the 75th anniversary of his first combat jump. It will be the seventh year in a row that Rice has performed a tandem jump in honor of his fellow paratroopers. Keep your eye out for news reports of Tom’s latest adventure, and access his original 2-part interview with Hometown Heroes here and here.