D-Day Veteran Roger Neighborgall Speaker at F.C. Veterans Ceremony

Long-time Falls Church City community activist Roger B. Neighborgall will be the featured speaker at next week's Veterans Day observance here. The service will be held at the Veterans Memorial in front of the Community Center in Falls Church Thursday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m.

It was upon attending the 60th anniversary commemoration of D-Day in Normandy last June, Neighborgall told the News-Press in an interview Tuesday that he revived an interest in telling his own World War II stories. He did a three-hour taping of his story with the History Channel, and was slated to leave later this week for a three-day lecture on the Battle of Irsch-Zerf at Ft. Benning in Georgia.

A member of the 5th Ranger Battalion, trained as special commandos, Neighborgall participated in the D-Day invasion, making it up the treacherous Pointe du Hoc on the shores of Normandy on June 6, 1994. He said he rode to shore with 33 others on an assault boat. “We vomited and bailed water the whole way,” he said. Back for the first time to see the Pointe du Hoc last June, he said he couldn't imagine how they'd ever made it ashore and over the point there.

The Battle of Irsch-Zerf was critical for the ability of Gen. George Patton's 10th Armored Division to advance in February 1945. Neighborgall’s 5th Ranger Battalion moved obliquely to get behind German forces in the area south of Trier near the Luxemburg border. But the projected two-day offensive took nine days and cost 55 American lives. Combined with 336 wounded, the battle left the Battalion with only five percent of its original 415 forces intact. Neighborgall, who had been left for dead in one skirmish, regained consciousness to escape across the Saar River.

“Until last June, I've never wanted to talk about my World War II experiences,” Neighborgall said. But now, he says, there's a lot to be learned from recounting them.

He and his battalion received numerous citations and commendations, including from the French government. A graduate of Duke University, he has served on the Recreation and Parks Advisory Board in Falls Church and on the board of the Friends of the W&OD Trail. He was an unsuccessful candidate for City Council in Falls Church in 1998.