Saved from the sea on D-Day, see chaplain kit at Fort Miles ceremony Saturday

A Lewes priest will serve as the keynote speaker at a D-Day commemoration ceremony at Fort Miles in Cape Henlopen State Park on Saturday.

D-Day marks U.S. troops’ June 6, 1944, entry into World War II. Some 156,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches in northern France that day, and throughout the Battle of Normandy, 40 Delawareans and over 125,000 Americans were killed. Fort Miles, now a park and museum, defended the U.S. coastline during the war and for decades after.

The ceremony, set for 11 a.m. on the Fort Miles overlook, will feature the reading of the names of each Delawarean killed in Normandy, the Mason Dixon VFW Post 7234 Honor Guard and Air Force veteran bagpiper Lani Spahr.

Keynote speaker Rev. Carol Flett, of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lewes, will bring with her a special chaplain kit.

More: On 80th anniversary of D-Day, Delaware WWII veteran recalls his mission with ‘ghost army’

Flett was mentored by the late Morris F. Arnold, an Episcopal priest that was among the soldiers who stormed the beaches on D-Day, a Southern Delaware Tourism news release said. As he attempted to get to safety, Arnold’s chaplain kit fell into the sea, but he somehow managed to both retrieve it and survive, the release said.

Later elected Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, according to the release, Arnold gave that kit to Flett. It will be on display at the Fort Miles Museum the day of the ceremony.

Shannon Marvel McNaught reports on southern Delaware and beyond. Reach her at smcnaught@gannett.com or on Twitter @MarvelMcNaught.