His moment of bravery lasts beyond a lifetime

By David Maurer

Published: November 9, 2008

On a towering bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, and the dark roiling waters of the English Channel, there is a cemetery.

Beneath its meticulously groomed expanse rest the remains of 9,387 Americans killed during the initial thrust into France during World War II. Among the sea of crosses and Stars of David there are three markers that stand out from all the others.

The names on these particular headstones are gold in color. This special honor is bestowed only to recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in war.

Frank Dabney Peregoy is one of the names that glint especially bright in the Normandy sunlight. He was born on April 10, 1916, in Nelson County, but did most of his growing up on a 23-acre farm in Albemarle County.

On the overcast morning of June 6, 1944, choice and fate had placed Peregoy in a landing craft racing toward destiny. It was D-Day, and their destination was a stretch of sand codenamed Omaha Beach.

By day’s end it had earned another name — “Bloody Omaha.” Some 3,000 Americans were killed or wounded trying to cross that narrow killing floor.

Peregoy held the rank of technical sergeant and was a member of Company K, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division. He managed to get off the beach without a scratch, but the Germans continued to contest every inch of soil.

On June 8, 1944, Peregoy’s outfit became involved in a fierce firefight when it approached bristling German defenses at Grandcamp. The enemy held the high ground, and was able to rake the American positions with machine gun fire.

When neither artillery nor tank fire could dislodge the Germans from their strong defensive position, Peregoy decided to act. He leaped up from his position and headed across a minefield straight into the teeth of withering gunfire.

John Taylor was a sergeant in Company K, and was with Peregoy that day. During an interview with The Daily Progress in 1994 he related what he saw.

“Somebody yelled, ‘Look at Peregoy,’ ” Taylor said. “When I looked over the top of the hedgerow where I was at, I see him going.

“He’s running up that slope firing his M-1, pow, pow, pow. When the clip would fly out, he’d stick another in it. After he had gone quite a ways he starts pulling out hand grenades and throwing them around.

“I don’t know where he got them all from. Then, just before he got up to the ditch where the Germans were, he put his bayonet onto his rifle and jumped into the trench.”

By the time Peregoy got finished dealing with the Germans in the trench, he had killed eight and captured 35 others. His actions so inspired the Americans looking on that they jumped up with a yell and overran the German position.

Peregoy never lived long enough to known he had earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his deeds that day. On June 14 he was writing a letter to his wife back home in Charlottesville.

Peregoy hadn’t finished the letter before getting orders to attack the next hedgerow. A few minutes later he lay dead, riddled with machine gun bullets.

In 1981 John Gordon visited the Normandy American Cemetery just east of St-Laurent-sur-Mer. He had seen combat aboard a PT boat in the South Pacific during World War II.

“I had taken a trip to France, because I had gotten very interested in the landing at Omaha Beach,” said Gordon, who lives in Albemarle County. “I had visited the cemetery and was about to leave when I met a man at the front gate who helped care for it.

“We started talking and I mentioned how impressed I was with the beauty of it. I then told him I didn’t know anyone personally who was buried there, but a man named Frank Peregoy was from my hometown.

“The man said, ‘Oh yes, he’s one of our Medal of Honor recipients. You must visit his grave.’ ”

The caretaker said no one had ever inquired about Peregoy before.

“That really shook me up, because I had read a newspaper account of the ceremony in 1945 when Peregoy’s widow received the medal,” Gordon said. “The general who gave the medal to her said her husband would never be forgotten.

“The man gave me some flowers and took me to the grave. It was very stirring, and I remember being greatly moved.

“I knelt down and placed the flowers on his grave. To myself I said, ‘God bless this man.’ ”

This Tuesday is Veterans’ Day. Across the nation grateful Americans will thank the men and women of the armed forces for the sacrifices they’ve made, and continue to make, on behalf of their country.

In a wind-swept cemetery in France, a name, embossed in gold, glimmers every day and in all seasons. It will be up to Frank Peregoy’s neighbors to ensure his memory is truly never forgotten.