WWII NCDU Monument Project

Naval Combat Demolition Units Scouts & Raiders Monument Park Dedication

Click here to watch English/French version of dedication

U.S. Naval Combat Demolition Units Scouts & Raiders Monument Park dedication ceremony at Omaha Beach, Normandy on May 30th, 2024. Thank you to the UDT/SEAL Museum for allowing USA Warrior Stories to film this historic occasion.

Matt Pearson & Dan Halperin at WWII NCDU Scouts & Raiders Monument Park, OMAHA Beach

This video tells the story of the architect who designed the OMAHA Beach NCDU S&R Monument Park - Mat Pearson and also included Captain Rick Woolard Navy SEAL Ret. & Dan Halperin who was part of the dedication ceremony with WWII Family in DDAY.

We sat down with the the U.S. Architect Mat Pearson while in in Normandy for the 80th DDAY Anniversary and he gave us the story of his own grandfathers connection to DDAY having served in the Navy during WWII. And also tells Dan Halperin story of attending the NCDU S&R Monument Park dedication in Normandy with The U.S. NAVY SEAL'S Museum in 2024 and of his own fathers connection to DDAY in WWII.

PHOTO GALLERY

Still Photography for Navy SEAL MUSEUM NCDU S&R Monument Dedication video by Andrew McLeish

Watch video below of how this project came together

WWII Naval Combat Demolition Units Monument Project

June 6, 1944: Sixteen 50-yard gaps were required on Omaha Beach to land the planned 2,000 troops per hour for the D-Day invasion in 1944. Sixteen teams of (NCDU) Naval Combat Demolition Units, each composed of seven Navy men and five Army engineers, were tasked to clear through the beach obstacles. One of the first teams ashore was wiped out as it landed, and another lost all but one man as it prepared to set off its lengths of twenty-pound explosive charges. Of the 175 NCDU men at Omaha, thirty-one were killed and sixty wounded—a 52 percent loss rate. However, the survivors succeeded in clearing five main channels through the obstacles and three partial channels before the rising tide forced them to withdraw. By the end of the day about one-third of the obstacles had been destroyed or removed.
This is the legacy of the NCDU, a legacy that will be honored on May 30th, 2024 by the dedication of a new monument overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy. This monument was spearheaded by the Navy Seal Museum in Port Pierce, FL.
For more information go to navysealmuseum.org/omaha