The Leesburg National Guard unit, which traces its heritage to the town's Colonial Militia, was honored, along with all U.S. military veterans, last week with a ceremony on the grounds of Dodona Manor, the former home of Gen. George C. Marshall who was known especially for the post-World War II recovery program that bore his name: The Marshall Plan.
Leesburg's 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment of the Virginia National Guard is also known as "The Stonewall Brigade" for its Civil War action at the first Battle of Bull Run when Gen. Robert E. Lee, observing the unit led by Gen. Thomas Jackson, commented, "Look at Jackson standing there like a stone wall." Jackson was known since then as "Stonewall" Jackson and the unit is part of the heritage of the 3rd Battalion.
The unit saw action in France during World War I and was the only National Guard unit at Normandy Invasion in World War II.
Brigadier General Theodore G. Shuey, a former commander of the unit who has written a book about the historic unit, told those gathered on Veterans Day last week that Gen. Marshall, before the Normandy invasion, thought it was important to demonstrate to Adolf Hitler that the American homefront was solidly behind the invasion. To do so, the guard unit was activated and placed in a leading position for the attack.
Since then, the unit has served in Bosnia in 1997, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004, and to Kuwait and Iraq in 2007.
Among the Veterans Day speakers at Dodona Manor was U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia's senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives, who noted it was appropriate to recognize veterans at Marshall's home for 18 years, observing also that President Truman had called Marshall "the greatest military man America ever produced."
Wolf also noted that the day honors "countless other American veterans forever — among them the brave men and women who just days ago were victims of a horrific domestic terrorist attack at Fort Hood — on American soil."
He also noted that "although patriotic Americans can disagree about particular calls to arms, the honor of those who have put on the uniform on our nation's behalf should never be questioned. Many have given their lives because they believed in the basic goodness of their nation and the dream it embodied."
"I thank all veterans, past and present, for their service," Wolf concluded.
The program concluded with the laying of a wreath in honor of all of the nation's military veterans.