Bombs, bullets and bravery at Omaha Beach (D-Day Veteran's story)

The Virginian Pilot ^ | 6/6/06 | DIANE TENNANT

[wagglebee]

Cary Lee Jarvis, 84, reflects on his experiences on Omaha Beach and about the D-Day invasion. "It seems like 10 lifetimes ago," the Virginia Beach residents says. Rich-Joseph Facus / Special to The Virginian-Pilot

Cary Lee Jarvis in 1943

Click the button below to hear Jarvis describe his experience during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Free Flash player required.

VIRGINIA BEACH - Cary Lee Jarvis, 84, knows D-Day.

He knows why mines were called "bouncing betties" and how booby traps worked. He knows about being a staff sergeant whose lieutenant was newly dead, leading men in the first wave of invasion onto Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944.

"Lots of shells explodin' and guns goin' off and we was bein' machine gunned and shot at with cannon fire and mortars was fallin' around and there was just so much stuff blowing up and going off, you didn't know where it was comin' or going ... We, of course, wanted to get cover as fast as we could, get off the beach, 'cause we could see the sand jumpin' up all around us, so we knew there was bullets hittin' in the sand ... I saw a couple people get blown half in two, steppin' on those, right in front of me. So we was scared to keep goin' across the beach so we got on our hands and knees and was crawlin', feelin' with our fingers, to see if we could detect anything such as a bouncin' betty and avoid it."

A few years back, Jarvis' daughter asked him to tape record his memories of World War II. He said he didn't think so. She gave him a recorder anyway, in case he ever wanted to tell people about volunteering to flush snipers out of French villages:

"Later on, you realized, man, you're askin' for it, sticking your neck out like that, but anyway the whole world was that way. Every day you stuck your neck out. And every day you was gettin' shelled or being shot at. It stayed in your mind all the time because somebody in your outfit was gettin' killed every day or gettin' shot every day. It stayed on your mind. When am I gonna get mine, or how will I get it? ... You lived in, I guess you'd call it, in fear or scared. Any soldier said he wasn't scared, he was lying. He was scared."

Several months after his daughter's request, Jarvis sat down in the front seat of his Model A, a car like the one he'd had before he joined the National Guard and then the Army and then the war. He had the recorder. He talked into it about being a forward observer with the 111th Field Artillery, aiming at a German coastal gun that could fire shells close to 20 miles :

"It must have hit the ammo dump or something right there by the gun. It looked like the whole world was blowin' up. It blew up the gun. All the ammo there, everything blew up. Planes that was trying to bomb it, them P-38 Lightnings, when all that big explosion and smoke rose, they had to go up in the air trying to get away from it."

Jarvis recorded his memories of fighting inland from the coast of France and supporting the Battle of the Bulge. He talked about his battlefield commission as a second lieutenant, about picking up a Bronze Star and turning down a Purple Heart . And he talked about raiding the kitchen truck:

"Two or three of the guys in my section asked me. I said, that's a no-no. 'Well, man, we're hungry, we're starving.' Well, I was hungry, too. So after a lot of persuasion from them I said all right, we snuck on down to where the kitchen truck was, one of the guys pulled up the back curtain and jumped inside, grabbed a can, a gallon can, come jumpin' out and we ran to our truck. Right away, we was gonna open that can and devour whatever was in it. When we opened it up, we had a gallon of orange marmalade. I don't know why, I still like orange marmalade."

In 2004, Jarvis went back to France, to Omaha Beach. His daughter went with him. He smiled in the pictures she took, because at that point he wasn't talking about cheating death:

"We was going across this real flat, open field. We was gettin' up one or two at a time and running in a zigzag fashion toward a hedgerow, which was maybe 100, 150 yards in front of us. There was two or three other guys that had already gotten up there and ... they hollered to us and said, 'Sergeant, when you come 'round this curve you'd better come fast, there's a sniper shooting at everybody.' When I started 'round that little curve where the hedgerow was, man, he shot at me. My heart, I guess, went right up into my throat. The bullet must have just missed my head ...

"Then two or three infantry guys, they got ready to come up there. The first two, they made it up, and the third one got hit right between the eyes and fell right at my feet. His helmet crumped up on the back of his head when he fell face down. There was a hole in his head bigger than my fist and he just made two or three gasps. And that was it. That was the end of him. So ... "

On the tape, there is a pause before Jarvis finishes his thought.

"Anybody says that war isn't hell, they're crazy."

The tape shuts off.

In person, when he told the story again on Friday, he cried.

[wagglebee]

It's wonderful that he is willing to tell his story, there are so few of these brave men left.

[Rome2000]

Shame the US has lost its ability to win any future wars.

The sacrifice and bravery of the soldiers hasn't changed, but the character of their leaders sure has.

Maybe Giulianl will fight the war at home against the socialist politicians and their media organ, enemy allies both and actively engaged in neutralizing our military advantage.

Bush sure hasn't.

[Donald Meaker]

Bush does what he can. The Islamic world is hanging by a thread. A few good kicks, and it will fall. The House of Saud is kept in power by a few Bedouin. Iran is rotting at the head. The Palistinian Arabs are realizing their dependence on the west, and the unreliability of their Islamic allies.

Ever play Risk? The key to victory is taking a country or two, and then holding on. Bush is smart to not overextend, and smarter yet to build up the Iraqi nation as a counter to Sunni corruption and Shiite madness.

A few more years, and thermonuclear fusion will allow us to generate fuel cheaper than pumping it from the ground. When that happens, Islam will fall so hard the rubble will bounce.

[PGalt]

BUMP; bump.

[Irishguy]

some good points....

i agree, islam is a failed religion...the freedom of their markets and governments will cause it to crash.

on this man here,

when i read this i noted 'and turning down a Purple Heart'.

interesting, here we have a hero who TURNS down a medal. compare and contrast that to the 'hero' of the left, one John Kerry. imagine the guys of d-day looking to fight for 4 months, get 3 medals and go home, only to turn up in the senate bitching about atrocoties....

wow, what a difference...this man is a hero, and he doesnt even know it...