June 6, 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, which was a major turning point in the war against Nazi Germany. Cullman County residents, James Felton Blair and John Harris Clark, made the ultimate sacrifice for their country on D-Day.

Their stories were researched and written as part of the Stories Behind the Stars project, a nationwide non-profit founded in 2020. The project endeavors to ensure that every one of the more than 421,000 American service men and women who paid the ultimate price to preserve our freedoms in World War II, are remembered as more than just a statistic in a book or a grave marker in a local cemetery. The project is named after the gold star banner that families of an American service member lost in WWII displayed in their window.

Blair was born in 1922, and grew up on a farm in Vinemont. Buster, as he was known, dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work on the family farm. When he registered for the draft in June 1942, he was employed by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, working at the Fairfield Steel Mill in Birmingham.

Blair was drafted into the US Army in December 1942. After completing basic training, he served as a Private in the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, which was known as “The Big Red One.” He was likely with the 1st ID when it took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. In November 1943, after the Sicilian Campaign ended, the 1st ID moved to England to prepare for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Western Europe.

On June 6, 1944, Blair and the rest of the 16th Infantry Regiment were in the first waves to go ashore at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. As their landing craft dropped their ramps, men were killed and wounded by German gunfire as they attempted to get out of the boats. Others were hit as they struggled through the surf or tried to run across the sand while weighed down with water-logged equipment. Many were shot down, but others made it to the base of the bluff where they found the area mined and crisscrossed with concertina wire. Eventually, the enemy wire was breached, and through vicious fighting, some hand-to-hand, the soldiers of The Big Red One made their way up the bluff and inland. Blair was killed in action at some point that day, and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the United States Armed Forces’ third-highest military decoration for valor in combat.

Blair was initially buried in France, but was reinterred in Mount Zion Methodist Church Cemetery in his hometown after the war. He is memorialized on the First Infantry Division monument at Omaha Beach and at the Alabama Veterans Memorial Park in Birmingham.

Clark was born in 1921, in Cullman County and grew up on a farm in Hanceville. After graduating from high school, he worked on the family farm.

Clark enlisted in the US Army Quartermaster Corps in July 1940, and later volunteered to be a paratrooper, and completed airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia. He served as a Technician 5th Class in the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. After months of preparation in England for the invasion of Europe, Tec5 Clark and the rest of the “Screaming Eagles” parachuted into Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944. They were tasked to secure two northern causeways leading inland from Utah Beach and to destroy a German artillery battery near St Martin-de-Varreville, France. He was killed in action at some point that day.

Clark was initially buried in France and after the war, was reinterred in Mount Grove Church Cemetery in Hanceville. He is also memorialized at the Alabama Veterans Memorial Park in Birmingham.

Bob Fuerst, a NASA engineer in Huntsville, serves as the Alabama State Director for the Stories Behind the Stars project, and leads a small team of volunteers from across the state who have researched and written stories of more than 5,000 of the more than 6,300 Alabamians who lost their lives during WWII. All stories written for the project are being saved to a common online database so they can be easily viewed by anyone. The stories are also being shared on a daily basis via a Facebook page named Remembering Alabama WWII Fallen.

Fuerst is just one of hundreds of Stories Behind the Stars volunteers, from all 50 states and a dozen other countries, researching and writing stories of American WWII fallen. The volunteers come from all ages and backgrounds — some as young as junior high school while others are retired. While some are amateur genealogists or seasoned researchers with years of experience, most are not. Stories Behind the Stars provides online training in how to research and write the stories, as well as free access to key online research sites that would otherwise require a paid subscription.

“Basically, if you can write an obituary, you can research and write one of these stories in as little as a couple of hours,” said project founder Don Milne of Louisville, Kentucky. “Be forewarned. This is a very addictive and enriching experience. Quite a few individuals have already written hundreds of stories.”

So far, the project volunteers have completed almost 50,000 stories of American WWII fallen, including all who died at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, all who died in Normandy on D-Day and all buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Many more volunteers are needed to complete this project. Anyone interested in learning more about the project, or to register as a volunteer, can do so at storiesbehindthestars.org.

Contact Fuerst at bob.al@storiesbehindthestars.org for more information about the project.

Many more volunteers are needed to complete the Stories Behind the Stars project. Anyone interested in learning more about the project, or to register as a volunteer, can do so at storiesbehindthestars.org.