Honoring One of Wyoming’s D-Day Heroes
75 years ago today, Hulett, Wyo. native Floyd Workman landed outside of Normandy with the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Facing heavy enemy fire near Utah Beach, Workman and his fellow paratroopers advanced to the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, where they met up the 4th Infantry Division and helped secure the strategic location for the Allied Forces.
Workman's story was recently recounted by his great-nephew Jamie Dupree, who is a journalist in Washington D.C. Like many War World II veterans, Floyd didn't talk much about D-Day after he returned home, but he did write a letter to his sister, Dupree's grandmother, on June 14, 1944, just ten days after the invasion.
"I suppose you are wondering why I haven't written, I can't tell you much but I am in France," Workman wrote. "I have been very lucky so far and I can thank God for that. I am a little tired and weary but am very thankful I am alive."
Workman's unit drove west, advancing from France to Holland, where they fought in the Battle of The Bulge. They eventually made it to Adolph Hitler's wartime retreat, Berchtesgarden in Germany.
Workman returned to Wyoming after the war and met his future wife Carrie. They married in 1947 and spent the rest of their lives on a ranch north of Sheridan. Sadly, he never made it back to Normandy. He died on June 3, 1994, just three days before the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
Workman was one of the nearly 9,000 Wyoming heroes who volunteered for War War II. 652 of them didn't make it back, including five who lost their lives on D-Day, Raymond Dahlman, Thompson Dicks, Thomas Offutt, Jr., Steven Serkovich, and Jack Simpson. 75 years later, their legacy lives on.