Omaha Beach and Beyond: The Long March of Sergeant Bob Slaughter - Tapa dura

Slaughter vividly conveys the reality of combat during World War II in his book with sweeping passages that literally place his reader on the battelfield beside him. --Motoring & Leisure

Sgt slaughter was one of the first people to land in france on D-Day and for that he deserves our undyaing respect. The book chronicles his experiences through training, to the fatefull massacre on Omaha Beach, throguh wounds and extensive combat. Sgt Slaughter then campaigned for a proper memorial in France --Birmingham Mail

Sixteen-year-old John Slaughter joined the 116th Infantry Regiment to escape the Great Depression. A few months later, he was engaged in the serious business of preparing for a conventional, high-intensity world war. Omaha Beach and Beyond is a record of his experiences. Slaughter advanced from private to staff sergeant squad leader; his Army service ended when he was only 20 years old but by then, he had done it all. He was also one of the first Army Rangers in World War II, experienced the war up front, lived in the dirt, squalor, weather, and spent days on the line, in a time when there was no forward support base for him to return to. The stress was phenomenal and some of his friends succumbed to what we now call post traumatic stress syndrome. Slaughter became involved in veterans affairs after the war and was the driving force behind locating and building the World War II D-Day monument in Bedford, Virginia. The location was not arbitrary the 116th Infantry Regiment suffered horrendous losses on D-Day, landing in one of the most heavily defended sections of Normandy. Soldiers were recruited to National Guard units from locales around their armories. The unfortunate by-product of this system was a very high number of casualties in the towns from which the units were drawn. Bedford, Virginia, had the highest per capita loss of any town in the United States for D-Day. Nineteen sons of this town died on the French shores. Slaughter was one of three D-Day veterans to escort the president and other officials during the 1994 50th anniversary commemoration along Omaha Beach, where his regiment suffered and distinguished itself. It was fitting that Slaughter was selected to lead the 2004 60th Anniversary march of the 29th 'Blue and Gray' Infantry Division in France. Many of the 2,000 casualties suffered by the 29th and 1st Infantry Divisions on Omaha Beach never came home and now lie in the beautiful cemeteries in France. John Slaughter s book reminds us of the sacrifice his friends and comrades made --Military Review

“Slaughter vividly conveys the reality of combat during World War II in his book with sweeping passages that literally place his reader on the battlefield beside him.”
Belvoir Eagle

Before D-Day, regular army soldiers called the National Guardsmen of Virginias 116th Infantry Regiment "Home Nannies," "Weekend Warriors," and worse. On June 6, 1944, on Omaha Beach, however, these proud Virginians who carried the legacy of the famed Stonewall Brigade showed the regular army and the world what true valor really was. In this moving World War II memoir, the author captures the day-to-day comings and goings of GI Joe from pre--World War II National Guard days through induction, training, deployment overseas, and more training.

All leads up to D-Day and Normandy on June 6, 1944, when Sergeant Bob Slaughter came across Omaha Beach with Company D of the 116th Infantry. This was the beginning of his long march to final victory in Europe, a march that would take him and his fellow soldiers of Company D, at least those who survived, to Holland, the Bulge, and on into Germany itself.