“I always had the feeling somebody was looking after me.”

“I’d watch the assault boats, the Higgins boats disappear into the smoke as they got closer to shore, there’d be a lot of smoke…We were waitin’ and waitin’ we didn’t know when we were supposed to join them, go ashore and I was disappointed. I was young then and I was disappointed. I wanted to be among the fir…I’m glad I wasn’t among the first or second, because most of the people who landed that landed before me laid there on the beach, they were dead.”

“I was surprised about how many dead people there were and they’re all young. The sad thing when I think about it now, at the time, you feel sorry for them, but you’re glad it’s not you, that’s how I felt, I feel sorry for these people, but I’m glad it’s not me and I think everybody felt that way.”

“They had informed us of what had happened, I think like the rest of the family it was difficult to accept because we hadn’t been with him. It was just a piece of paper that said he had been killed in action and it took awhile for it to set it and we really realized that once some of the letters that we had written him came back undelivered.”

“It was something I had always wanted to do, but I didn’t think I’d ever get to go to his grave in Normandy . It was quite an emotional experience for me to be there on his grave after nearly 50 years. It was like a connection, a reunion of souls maybe. I’ve often wondered what life would have been like for him?”

“I was actually proud of being part of it.” “I’m not a hero, I’m not hero. I’m just a survivor.”

“I always felt bad and I do today for all the servicemen that got killed in action. I think about it all the time.”

“I remember that day after I got wounded. The four of us was there and we were all crying.”

“Anybody would have done what I did I suppose. So I didn’t think of it as being a great hero. It had to be done and everybody did what they had to do.”

“A Hero? What does it mean, a hero? Can you tell me? Just because he did something which is very important? He had a job to do and that’s what I did. I had a job to do and I did it. I’m not a hero, I wouldn’t call myself a hero.”

by Donald A. McCall/Rhode Island

“On December 7, 1941 my mother, father, brother and I were at my uncle’s home in East Freetown, MA on a pre Christmas visit. As our usual Sunday early evening family time we were listening to one of our favorite radio show programs when President Franklin D. Roosevelt interrupted the program to announce that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and that we were now at war. I had turned 10 years of age in May of that year and the full impact of a war wasn’t fully understood at that time. It wasn’t very long afterward that the whole of America was in union with each other to get involved and take care of the situation.
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“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.”
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“When we finally got over the shore, I looked down and saw the beach of France and I thought beautiful beach down there. Before it got very much further, maybe a minute, maybe five minutes, I don’t know, I started seeing flak coming up at the plane. It wasn’t very long after that that somebody said Stout has been hit. I got back there and put him on the bucket seat and laid him down. At that point somebody yelled at me, the green light is on Lt.. Now, I’d already had the boys half stand-up and hook-up because the red light had been on earlier and at that point I turned and hollered to the group Geronimo! Lets go! And I turned and went out.”
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Providence, RI - The National World War II Museum, founded in New Orleans, LA by the late historian and author, Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers, D- Day: June 6, 1944, Citizen Soldiers) has addd a local documentary to its national archives for the purposes of research and public use.

D-Day + 62 years: Rhode Island Veterans Return to Normandy has been added to the National WWII museum’s collection of oral histories and programs designed to educate the public on the role played by veterans on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

For its national release, the documentary’s title has been changed to D-Day: The Price of Freedom.

The film follows the experiences of six Rhode Island D-Day veterans on their return to Normandy in the spring of 2006. For some of the veterans, it was their first trip back to Normandy in 62 years.

The documentary, produced by Tim Gray and filmed and edited by award winning Director of Photography, Jim Karpeichik (Ocean State Video) aired twice this past June on NBC10 in Providence. The film is also scheduled to air again this fall on RIPBS.

“It’s a great honor to have the film placed in the archives of the National World War II Museum” said Tim Gray. “This insures the personal stories these veterans have to share will live on forever. D-Day was a turning point in the history of the world and we need make sure the sacrifices of veterans are not forgotten.”

The DVD remains on sale at select CVS stores in Rhode Island and the Quonset Air Museum in North Kingstown. The DVD can also be purchased on-line at www.timgraymedia.com.cybertechnical.com. Part of the proceeds of every sale of the film benefit the construction of the new World War II Memorial in Providence.

Copies of the film on D-Day will also be sent free of charge to all high schools, universities and libraries in the state of Rhode Island for their personal archives and use in educational research.

Tim Gray Media, Inc.

Tim Gray Media, a documentary film company with an additional focus on Public Relations, was founded in 2006 by former NBC10 sports anchor and news and sports reporter Tim Gray.

Joseph B. Nadeau, Staff Writer 05/25/2006

WOONSOCKET — The bad memories of the early hours of D-Day will always be there. Nothing will ever change that for Richard D. Fazzio of 319 Mowry St.

But thanks to a visit back to Normandy this spring, Fazzio has a new outlook on his role in the Allied invasion of Nazi-held France 62 years ago.
Fazzio returned to Normandy as part of Providence film producer Tim Gray’s work on a project honoring Rhode Island veterans of the invasion, and will be on the big screen at the Stadium Theatre this Sunday when the hourlong documentary “D-Day +62; Rhode Island Veterans Return to Normandy” debuts. It will also air on WJAR-TV (Channel 10) in observance of this year’s anniversary of D-Day on June 6.

“It brought back a lot of what I went through, but I’m glad that I went,” Fazzio said about his participation in the new documentary.

Fazzio joined four other Rhode Island veterans of the invasion — Frank Chomka, 83, of Mendon Road, Cumberland; Wilson Delasanta, of New Clark Road, Cumberland; Leo Heroux, of Central Falls; and Chris Heisler, of Wakefield — in making the trip, and will be featured with several other Rhode Islanders with connections to D-Day in the completed project.
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By Arline A. Fleming
Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN Given that he was a schools superintendent, a University of Rhode Island professor, a town councilman, a clambake master, and a subject of a recent World War II documentary, it’s no surprise that Walter “Chris” Heisler, of Matunuck, has amassed enough newspaper clippings to fill the one-room Michigan schoolhouse where he taught as a young man.

He’s 90, and still more clippings bearing his name can be added to his collection, most recently from a French paper documenting his return to a small Normandy village that turned out to honor him last month.
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