Richard M. Hedden and H. Smith Shumway have several things in common. They are both members of the Church, one in South Dakota, the other in Missouri. They have both lost their beloved wives after decades of marriage.

Courtesy Shumway family

France recently honored H. Smith Shumway, right, blinded in combat, for his service. With him is Richard Borbeyron, French Consul General.

Courtesy Richard Hedden

Richard H. Hedden with his war bride, Berniece, was among two of 50 to survive assault on German line on July 11, 1944.

And both landed on Omaha Beach on D-day.

In the more than 60 years since the carnage and chaos of that day, both men have looked back countless times with gratitude for their lives and for what they consider divine protection.

"Many times in the night and in the morning, I thank God Almighty, our Father in Heaven, for protecting me many times from the sheer jaws of death," Brother Hedden said.

Today, Brother Hedden, 83, and Brother Shumway, 84, have something else in common. In the past year, both veterans have been belatedly honored by France for their part in liberating that nation and helping bring to a close World War II.

Last May, Brother Shumway was named the Knight of the Legion of Honor by the president of France. He received the honor by the consul general of Chicago in a ceremony in St. Louis, Mo. In August 2005, Brother Hedden received the Croix de Guerre, an honor awarded those individuals who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with enemy forces. He was honored in Rapid City.

Brother Shumway has been back to France twice since 1944, the first time in 2004 for the 60th anniversary of D-day, and the second last month with family members. However, he can't see the shores of Omaha where he was a 22-year-old infantry platoon leader in the First Army Division. Weeks after that June 6, he was blinded by an anti-tank mine.

After landing with the second wave on the shores of Normandy, he led his platoon from hedgerow to hedgerow, in what he called "tedious fighting." On July 27, 1944, he said, "my life changed forever."

"I was walking on a narrow sunken road bordered with hedgerows, about one meter behind a tank. Suddenly a horrible explosion occurred, which I learned later was due to an anti-tank mine," Brother Shumway wrote in his personal history. "Immediately everything went totally black."

He wrote that he had the feeling of being suspended in air from the horrific explosion. Coming to his senses on the ground, he did not yet realize he was blind. He did realize, however, that he was covered in shrapnel wounds. "I woke up in a field hospital on the Normandy coast. The realization that I was permanently blind came slowly over the next few days."

Prayer, he recorded, "brought me much needed peace of mind."

After spending two years in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, he was hired in Baltimore, Md., in 1946 by the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation as a counselor for the blind. He visited factories, demonstrating how a blind person could perform particular tasks. Once people were hired, he moved on to the next site. He was so determined to teach others the capabilities of a person with a disability that every year for 10 years he led the nation "in terms of the number of jobs qualified by a blind rehabilitation counselor."

Later in life, he was director of Rehabilitation for the Blind in the Wyoming Education Department and served as a bishop in Cheyenne for seven years and as stake patriarch.

"It was my faith in the Lord and my personal conclusion that the Lord must want me to learn how to be a good blind person, so I'd better get on with it," Brother Shumway, a member of the Frontenac Ward, St. Louis Missouri Stake, wrote in correspondence to the Church News. "When people came to see me they seemed really sad, so I figured it was my job to help them be more happy."

Brother Shumway married Sarah Bagley on Sept. 1, 1948, in the Salt Lake Temple. They had eight children, 41 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. They were called on a mission together to England in 1986. Sister Shumway died of cancer in 1992. "It gives me great comfort to know that in the next life I will be with — and see — my wife," Brother Shumway said

Brother Hedden of the Rapid City (South Dakota) 2nd Ward will never forget July 11, 1944. A member of the 29th Infantry Division, Company A of the U.S. Army, he was five to six miles inland from Omaha Beach. During the previous night, the company had managed to halt a German advance. Then, at dawn on the 11th, Company A was ordered to counterattack. Fifty riflemen, including Brother Hedden, jumped over the hedgerow and charged the German lines. They had to run 100 yards into machine gun fire.

When the smoke cleared, just two members of Company A remained, one being Brother Hedden. "I left 48 of my buddies," he recalled during a telephone conversation.

On another day, he saw a farm house on fire and heard cries for help. Racing in the door, he pulled three people, including a severely wounded German soldier, from the burning structure.

Today, Brother Hedden doesn't like recalling those days, especially June 6, 1944. He won't see movies depicting D-day. "I don't want to go through it again. We were actually the first wave that got off the beach. There were bodies. They were dead and dying. They were floating in the water."

His wife of 60 years, Bernice, died in 2003 from Alzheimers. She was an English woman he met during the war. "Over the years, she presented me with four beautiful babies. We lost one at 18 months old."

Six years ago, Brother Hedden joined the Church and has since been sealed to his wife.

Six decades after D-day both Brother Hedden and Brother Shumway continue to have much in common. They both carry shrapnel in their bodies from their injuries. Brother Shumway continually sets off airport security alarms. They both enjoy the love of children and grandchildren. And both express gratitude for their lives.

Brother Hedden loves the 23th Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters...."

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