My wife and I are recreational ballroom dancers. Not this Dancing with the Stars crap. Bronze/silver level rhythm and smooth. There is a couple we took lessons from back in the 90’s that we meet at the dances and share a table with. One June he told me, “I went in with the first wave at Utah beach.” I was floored. He was in the 4th ID, 8th IR. We got to talking and he told me that he had been wounded 3 times, and the worst part of D-Day was cutting dead paratroopers out of the trees. I asked him if he ever had a desire to go back to Normandy for a tour. He said he never wanted to see it again.
When you look at the newsreels of what those men went through on the D-Day landing, it’s completely beyond belief.