The Veterans Memorial Walls
at the Mount Soledad War Memorial
Dedication Ceremony
Memorial Day, May 28, 2001 - La Jolla, California
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Return to Normandy Association panels on the Veterans Memorial Walls at the Mount Soledad War Memorial in San Diego, CA, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The Return to Normandy Association is a group of WWII paratroopers who parachuted at Amfreville, France, on June 5, 1994, at the 50th year commemoration of the Normandy landings. Twelve 506th PIR Currahees are listed on these panels: |
| (L-R): Richard Mandich
(REGT HQ, 506th PIR), President, Return
to Normandy Association; Kelly Stumpus (907th
Glider Field Artillery), past national President,
101st Division Association; Jossiline
de Clausade, Consulate General of France in Los Angeles. The Consulate General was in San Diego to speak at the dedication of the Veterans Memorial Walls at Mount Soledad, and to present the French Thank-You-America Certificate in person to the various member of the Return to Normandy Association, who were present at the dedication in their Return-to-Normandy jump uniforms. |
| William P. Galbraith (I/HQ,
3rd BN, 506th PIR, 1942-1945) with the Thank-You-America
Certificate presented to him by Jossiline de Clausade, Consulate
General of France in Los Angeles. The blank concrete walls in the background are part of the curving 6-wall system that will accommodate 3,200 black granite plaques honoring individual veterans from all branches of the United States military who served during time of war. The plaques are made from the same black granite used in the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., and the first two of these walls were dedicated in the Memorial Day ceremonies on May 28, 2001. |
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The French Government was issuing a certificate to recognize the participation of all American and allied service members who took part in the Normandy landing and contributed to the liberation of France. Eligible veterans must have participated in the Normandy landing and liberation of France, on French territory and in French territorial waters and airspace, between June 6, 1944 and May 8, 1945. The certificate was not issued posthumously. |
| (Standing L-R): William
P. Galbraith (I/HQ, 3rd BN, 506th PIR) and
Kelly Stumpus (907th Glider Field Artillery) (Sitting): Hoyt Bruce Moore, III (A Co, 1st BN, 506th, 1970-1971) in front of the RTN (Return to Normandy Association) panels at the Veterans Memorial Walls at Mount Soledad, regarded as the most significant war memorial in the western United States. |
