Trolly through town.
The National D-Day memorial and the town of Bedford are teaming up to offer trolly tours following the footsteps of the Bedford Boys.
10 News spoke with organizers about the timeline.
Driving through Bedford, it's hard to miss the banners that line the streets in honor of each Bedford Boy.
It's a visual reminder of the history that's woven into the town - a community that's paid the ultimate sacrifice.
“Living here, it has so much history here, and I've always thought Bedford kind of embodied what a free America is, and so having those values comes with a price tag, unfortunately,” said Bryan Schley, a member of Bedford's town council.
Schley reminds us the price of freedom cost Bedford 19 lives on D-Day.
Detailing the history of the young men lost are brass plaques set up in significant locations in town.
“When people visit the memorial, everyone is always intrigued by the story of the Bedford Boys. It's such a moving, deeply personal story that people can connect to,” said Maggie Harley Mitchell, National D-Day Memorial Foundation associate director for programming and events.
The current "Bedford Boys Homefront Tour" connects memorial visitors to the town by giving them a map to follow or an app to download.
However, come August, memorial leaders are adding trollies to the tour.
“We realized parking is kind of difficult downtown in Bedford. There's not many lots, on-street parking is 15 minutes to two hours. That's not a lot of time to actually soak in the different stops, so that's when we started discussing the possibility of offering this as a separate, ticketed trolley tour.
“When there's a war, it's not necessarily just the soldiers, but it affects everybody, and this tour kind of touches on that,” Schley said.
Schley adds connecting the memorial to the town of Bedford is intentional and has taken years to do.
“When you go over to Normandy, there's a lot of significance connected to Bedford, and so it's important that when people come from Normandy here that we show them just how connected Bedford was to the war,” said Schley.
In fact, no town suffered greater loss than this one.
“We had 4,413 men who died on D-Day, and we lost the most men percentage-wise than any other town in the United States, and so we have the opportunity to tell the stories of these 20 guys who grew up here in Bedford County,” said Mitchell.
In just a few months, you will be able to take a trolley through town to experience the stories of the Bedford Boys instead of walking plaque to plaque.
If you would like to learn more about the tour click here.