When chilly winds and foaming waves rush onto Omaha Beach from the English Channel on June 6, the 69th anniversary of D-Day, 19-year-old Harrison Parker of Atlanta is sure a wave of emotion will wash over him as well as hundreds of spectators as soon as he starts playing the sad strains of Amazing Grace on his bagpipes.
Old soldiers will be there, including a few who took part in the invasion that led to the liberation of Europe, but so will young ones who flock to the beaches of Normandy on every anniversary. Also on hand will be hundreds of relatives of the men who waded ashore.
On that one day, 1,465 Americans were killed, 3,184 were wounded and 1,954 were reported missing or captured.
Dressed in full military bagpipe regalia, Parker, plans to play his first notes at 6:30 a.m., the exact hour U.S. forces hit the beach.
“It is very moving to me, to have this honor,” says Parker, a graduate of Westminster Schools and now a freshman at Harvard. “It’s especially poignant. I’ll be the only piper.”
He was invited to begin the ceremony by the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, which organized the event.
“We will be a Vierville-sur-Mer, where the Bedford Boys landed with all the rest,” says Jeremy Collins, a museum official. “We want our guests to absorb the enormity of the moment.”
The Bedford Boys have come to represent America’s sacrifice that day. The tiny Virginia town of 3,200 in 1944 suffered the nation’s severest losses, with 19 killed.
“As H-Hour strikes, Harrison will then begin to play in tribute to the fallen as our group and the multitude of others who will be on the beach will be able to remember and reflect on the sacrifices of the Allied troops on D-Day.”
Harrison has made the trip before to participate with 410 other pipers who were raising funds to honor the late Bill Millin, who famously played the pipes under fire during the invasion. A bronze statue in his memory will be unveiled two days later not far from Omaha, and Parker says he’ll be there.
Parker, busy with his studies at Harvard, asked his parents, Dr. Barbara Long, a psychiatrist, and Steve Parker, to fund this year’s trip.
“I gave them the puppy dog eyes,” he says. “But they think it’s cool and extremely meaningful. I’m excited. It’s so moving, and I’ll be the only piper playing.”
He realizes that 10,000 World War II veterans are dying every day, and “our whole country will miss them sorely when they go,” his mother says. “Quite frankly, being on Omaha where all that blood was shed will be tough. All parents hope to be able to send something positive into the universe. Harrison told us, ‘Those people are counting on me and I don’t want to disappoint them.”
Having Harrison play, Collins says, “is extremely poignant. He is the same age as many of those young men who landed on that very spot. It will serve as a sobering reminder that most of those who died were merely boys.”
Says Harrison: “It is a true honor.”
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