United States Navy Monument at Normandy

After a thorough review at the Naval Order Congress in Monterey, CA, it was unanimously decided to move the Navy D-Day Monument dedication date to September 27th, 2008. The 3½ month delay from the originally planned 6 June dedication will allow time for the sculptor to complete the full-scale model, for the foundry to complete manufacture of the Monument, and provide the time needed to transport the Monument from Denver to Normandy. Adequate funds are in hand and pledged to allow this commitment.

From first awareness that no Navy Monument existed at Normandy to final dedication will have taken less that 5 years. This Project, the largest in the history of the Naval Order, has been a relatively smooth operation thanks to the commitment and support of many volunteers. The willingness of our sculptor, Stephen Spears, to create a design on his own time and expense was critical to the decision to proceed and his flexibility in working with us is testament to his patriotism and personal interest in making this memorial a reality.

The ongoing efforts of Historic Tours, Inc., Ray and Cristy Pfeiffer, to enlist the enthusiastic support and ongoing cooperation of the French Normans and the tireless efforts of Dan Felger and so many people in supporting this fund-raising effort have been indispensable in reaching this milestone.

We are now in position to make detailed plans for activities surrounding the Dedication. Historic Tours, Inc., has arranged a five-day tour surrounding the dedication date that will bring to all in attendance a much deeper understanding of the heroism and sacrifice of our men at Normandy and the critical contribution of our Navy to their success. The Tour will start in Paris on 24 September and end in Paris on 29 September.

A detailed description of the tour and preliminary preparations for the dedication program can be found by clicking HERE.

Navy Normandy Monument Project Underway

By Captain Gregory Streeter, USN (Ret.)

Sixty-three years following the largest naval operation in world history, the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, the only service not recognized by any monument or memorial at Normandy is the United States Navy.

Hundreds of ships and thousands of men were involved in transporting allied forces from England to Normandy in the largest armada ever assembled, in constructing and operating artificial harbors and in supplying the forces once they were ashore.

Walking the beaches of Normandy today and observing the many plaques and monuments there will give little clue that the U.S. Navy ever was there.

The Naval Order of the United States, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, associations of Merchant Marine and Sea Service veterans in the United States discovered this oversight during a presentation made to a chapter of the Naval Order in 2003 by Mr. Ray Pfeiffer, who conducts tours of WWII battlefields in Europe.

Mr. Pfeiffer related that he and his wife conduct frequent tours of Normandy and they try to emphasize the Navy’s role since it tends to otherwise get minor, if any, recognition in the ongoing remembrances of D-Day. He also mentioned in his presentation that the necessity for doing so was magnified by the fact that the Navy is the only service with no Monument at Normandy.

This lack of recognition is enormous when considering that the naval component of the operation comprised 1,213 allied warships. Their main task was to provide shore bombardment firepower for the troops going ashore, to guard the transports, and to conduct minesweeping and antisubmarine patrols on the flanks of the invasion corridor.

Allied forces also provided 4,126 amphibious craft, including a variety of specialized landing craft, such as LSTs, LCIs, and LCTs.

More than 3,500 of these landing craft were actually used during the Normandy invasion and would provide the crucial troop-carrying capacity to land the thousands of men, vehicles, and artillery along the 50-mile wide target area.

The final full-scale monument will be placed at a location on Utah Beach, which already has been designated by the French authorities.

The Monument was designed at his own expense by sculptor Stephen Spears of Fair Hope, Alabama. It will be composed of three realistic figures, each representative of an element of the operation, planning and execution, implementation, and aftermath.

The planning and execution figure will be exemplified by the figure of a Navy Captain in a “take charge” attitude. Around his feet will be various representative objects relating to the planning aspects of the invasion, charts, codebooks, and plans.

The sailor figure will represent the action of implementation. The superb training and execution of their duties in the invasion is represented by the loading of one of the thousands of shells fired before and during the assault to both prepare for the landings and later direct support fire.

The third figure represents the immense strain on the Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDU), which had to both precede the invasion by removing mines and other explosive devices and then follow during and after to further insure the safety of the beachhead.

The figures are approximately 8 feet tall and will rest on a concrete pentagonal base. The base is 4 feet high and will be rimmed with a continuous bronze plaque that wraps around the upper portion of the five sides and will list all of the Navy vessels that participated in the Normandy invasion. Plans are also under consideration to design bas-relief scenes of various aspects of the operation such as amphibious craft on the beaches, shore bombardment, etc., to be mounted on the faces of the base.

The total cost to manufacture, transport, and dedicate the Monument is estimated at $500,000. As of March 2007 the Naval Order has received, or been pledged, approximately $140,000 in cash contributions from its membership and other donors across the country. In addition, a generous benefactor from a transportation and logistics company has pledged to transport the completed Monument from its place of manufacture in Denver, Co to the site at Utah Beach, an estimated value of $50,000-$60,000. The target date for unveiling the monument is 27 September 2008. The Naval Order is seeking donations across the board from individuals, Associations and Corporations. The Monument will be entirely privately funded with no government involvement.

Capt. Greg Streeter, USN (Ret), is the Chairman of the Naval Order’s Navy Normandy Monument Committee. E-mail: gstreetr@bellsouth.net

Editor’s note: Retired Navy Captain Gregory Streeter graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958. His first duty station was USS Glennon DD 840, which was the second Glennon; the first Glennon was sunk by a mine at Normandy. During his 28-year Naval career, Captain Streeter’s commands were USS Barry DD 933 and USS Wm R. Rush DD 714. His Squadron commands included DesRon 24 and DesRon 12. He is a graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., and the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.