The American National Guard in Normandy in 1964

In an article signed by Colonel James B. Deerin and published in August 1964, the National Guardsman reports on the memorial voyage of representatives of the National Guard Association of the United States, the NGAUS.

A legend announces that a monument dedicated to the members of the National Guard who died during the liberation is to be installed on the German observation bunker in Vierville, opposite Omaha Beach. Another photograph shows Major General James F. Cantwell, president of the NGAUS, offering Mayor Michel Hardelay a work from the Heritage series representing Lafayette's return to the United States. The legend also names Thomas North, of the American Battle Monuments Commission, the majors generals William J. Witte, Clarence E. Shoop and Ralph Olson, members of the association's Normandy commission, as well as the mayor of Vierville during the war. An image shows the delegation of the Land and Air Guard passing by a guard of honor to join a commemorative ceremony.

The representatives of the NGAUS devoted the rest of June 6 to the ceremonies of several coastal villages. On June 8, the association organized a reception and dinner at the George-V Hotel in Paris, in the presence of senior officers of the Allied nations and American officers assigned to the SHAPE and the US Army Europe. Lieutenant General William Quinn, commander of the U.S. Seventh Army, and Prince Pierre of Greece and Denmark, President of the Allied Confederation of Reserve Officers, were among the guests.

In Paris, the delegation participated in a memorial service at the American cemetery of Suresnes. General Cantwell then laid a wreath at the monument of the French Resistance on Mont Valérien. Before arriving in France, the participants had spent two days in London, invited by the Council of Territorial Army and Auxiliary Forces Associations, an organization presented as comparable to the NGAUS.

Upon returning, General Cantwell greeted a group whose members had all paid their personal expenses. He believed that the trip had strengthened relations with the Allied forces, both active and reserve, and paid tribute to the national guards and other American soldiers who died in Europe. He wanted the association to maintain this memory by participating in future birthdays. The photographs are awarded to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Reconstructed or uncertain passages:
- Rewriting in French of a press page in English. The beginning of the article and the end of a photo caption are absent or not very readable; no missing detail has been invented.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/PhDoc13/MH15-USNGMt1964.jpg