D-Day Commemoration Held Saturday in Stephens Co.
Ground is broken on a planned pavilion at the Camp Toccoa property at Currahee Mountain.
Stephens County marks D-Day.
On Saturday, the Camp Toccoa at Currahee Project held its fourth annual D-Day run at Currahee Mountain.
Runners and walkers got up early in the morning to travel the “three miles up and three miles down” Currahee Mountain, following in the footsteps of the paratroopers who ran that mountain as part of their training for World War II at Camp Toccoa.
Along with the run, there were demonstrations, information booths, an obstacle course for children, and then a memorial service.
During the memorial service, Camp Toccoa at Currahee Steering Committee Chair Cynthia Brown noted the difference between what Currahee Mountain sounds like today and what Normandy sounded like on D-Day.
“I want you to stop for a moment and listen,” said Brown. “You hear some shuffling of feet; you hear some talking in the background. 71 years ago this very minute, I cannot imagine the horrific noise, the constant, horrific noise.”
Also speaking at the memorial service was World War II veteran John Beaufort.
Beaufort started at paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa before being transferred to another area of service in the Army.
According to Beaufort, a mistake put him in the wrong unit and that led him to Normandy on D-Day.
He said that D-Day was the beginning of the long journey to peace.
“I landed on Utah Beach,” said Beaufort. “From there, we went through Germany, Austria, and ended up at the Eagle’s Nest. They pulled us out of the Eagle’s Nest and that was the end of the war in Europe. We were put back on a ship and we were outside of Japan ready to invade Japan when they dropped the atomic bomb.”
At the end of the memorial service, ground was broken on the next planned step at the Camp Toccoa site at Currahee Mountain.
Camp Toccoa at Currahee is looking to construct a pavilion on the property.
Brown said that Camp Toccoa at Currahee has applied for an Appalachian Regional Commission grant to help pay for the pavilion and hope to hear on whether that grant is received around the end of August.
She said the pavilion is just another part of making the Camp Toccoa site one people can enjoy all year long.
“It will seat about 500 people,” said Brown. “It is more like a pole barn, but it is being designed so that at some point in time, we can put on walls and have it enclosed to use year-round. We want to be able to offer veterans’ groups and other organizations an opportunity to come here and be covered so they can enjoy the land, whether it is raining or beautiful.”
The grant will require Camp Toccoa at Currahee to put up matching funds on a dollar for dollar basis.
To donate to Camp Toccoa at Currahee, Brown says people can go online to www.camptoccoaatcurrahee.org or send it to 160 North Alexander Street, Toccoa, Georgia, 30577.
All donations to Camp Toccoa at Currahee are tax-deductible.
The goal of Camp Toccoa at Currahee is to preserve the site of World War II Camp Toccoa on Currahee Mountain and use it to honor and remember the paratroopers that trained there.