I once had a retired Army Lt Col as a supervisor. He was a 2nd Lt Graves Registration Officer on D Day. A friend of mine’s father was an Army Chaplain on D Day. You don’t want to know the stories these men told.
Dad fought in the Pacific campaign USMC. Guadalcanal/Bougainville. He wouldn’t tell me what he witnessed. That’s what he said to me “You don’t want to know”.
Of course I did want to know . But he’s gone now and any stories are gone with him.
America needs to always be reminded of the cost of liberty and honor, duty and country.
One uncle of mine was on first wave at Omaha beach. He survived, watched several of his buddies standing there on minute and get hit by mortar and just gone. Fought at Hurt-gen Forest where frost bite on his feet sent him to the Ardennes, the quite sector to recover and then of course, the Bulge and was in either Austria or Czechoslovakia by wars end. He really gets emotional if you can get him to talk about the war.
Another uncle’s transport was torpedoed before D-Day during practice landings, he survived and ended up an anti-aircraft gunner in the 3rd Army. Same with him, very emotional when he would talk about it. Big thanks to all these men!!!
My grandfather attempted to drive his Sherman to Omaha, but a mortar floundered the transport boat on disembark. He said he had a front row seat to the whole day; floating in the frigid water. He never elaborated.