A Young Officer Died in Normandy. His Story Found Her.

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.3 • 737 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, for years, Heather McPherson knew only fragments about her great-uncle, a young officer who served with the 29th Division during World War II. His name was Ralph Ferguson, and he was among the Allied troops who landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He died soon after during the push inland, one soldier among many lost during the invasion of Europe.

When Heather set out to learn more about him, the search grew into something larger. It took her through records of World War II losses, personal accounts from the Normandy landings, and finally to the riverbank where he fell. That personal journey shaped her calling. Today, she works as a curator who protects the stories of the men and women who served, including the one that set her own path in motion.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed human.
0:14.3	And we continue with our American stories, and on this show, we consider it a privilege to honor those who have given their lives
0:21.8	in combat for others. And so does Heather McPherson, who is the curator of history at the South
0:28.4	Carolina Military Museum. In fact, it's the reason she's at the museum in the first place.
0:34.3	Here's Heather to tell us more.
0:48.3	Music in the first place. Here's Heather to tell us more. So when I was growing up, my mom had photos on our piano of her uncles, and I was always interested in this one, like, I want to know his story. His name was Ralph Ferguson and he served in the 29th Division during World War
1:00.3	II and landed on Omaha Beach first wave and made it to June 12th before he was killed in
1:07.3	action.
1:08.3	It was about 12 miles in near the El River.
1:10.7	So I grew up kind of hearing bits and pieces of that story and, you know, throughout, you know, teenage, you get other priorities when you're a teenager and everything, but, you know, I loved history class and stuff like that. But I was kind of, you know, every once in a while, I dig into it a story a little bit. And then, you know, after college, I really dove into it. There was so much more available on the internet and getting in contact with people and just kind of made it like a
1:33.3	side mission of mine to figure out his story. And I just kind of found some sense of purpose trying to tell his story.
1:40.3	The family didn't really talk about it. Brothers didn't want to mention him, the mother. And so my grandma grew up not knowing a lot about what happened to him.
1:47.0	And same with his widow, didn't really know a lot.
1:51.0	So me being able to piece together his few days in country and what he might have gone through
1:57.0	and even finding mentions of him in books and stuff. It was, it was
2:02.4	this really incredible journey and just got me more interested in other aspects of World War II
2:06.8	and then eventually other military in general. Yeah, I was actually found a mention of him in one
2:13.2	of Steve and Ambrose's books. One of the soldiers under his command, he was the second lieutenant in the
2:18.1	29th division. He was talking like he always felt sorry for him because he had to read his
2:23.4	soldier's mail and censor it. And he knew that he was getting really close to these men after
2:29.1	having to censor their mail and that he didn't want to lose any of them. And he kind of reminded
	...

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