“We headed into the beach, it was still dark but then as we headed into the beach, all the ships start firing, it was one awesome sight. All of a sudden, bullets were hitting on the side of the ship and the water and I looked into the well of the boat and there was 35 soldiers in there and I don’t think there was an atheist in there because every one of them was making the sign of the cross as we were going in and I happened to look….I looked to the right and I seen a boat get hit…and that’s when I realized what we were going into. As I hit the beach, Wally Lawton lowered the ramp and the soldiers start pouring out and I seen them droppin’, I seen them getting shot, I seen their faces blown off, God, it’s a sight I’ll never forget, it’s been in my mind since. This is the first time I ever talked about it, I hope its my last…As they were going off, there was one soldier there who didn’t want to leave, I guess he froze, he seen what happened in front of him and we were instructed not to take anybody back unless they were wounded or dead. As I lifted up my arm to tell him to get off, I was shot over here and it came out my back.”

“Two days before Normandy , all coxswains and captains of the ships, we had a meeting in what they called this pavilion, it was an airplane hangar. That hangar must have been about a half a mile long and it was wide anyway and they had the whole replica of Normandy beachhead…exactly like it was…and my position was..I had to head right straight.. gotta watch for a church.. and head right straight for that church. That day they assigned us our boats, the boat number and the wave. I won the lottery I was first boat, fifth wa…, first wave, fifth boat…”

“I can remember the soldiers telling me, “go all the way in I don’t want to get wet, I don’t want to get wet, you know? They didn’t get wet, they got killed.”