“It was awful. Blood was all over. Blood was all over. We saw the bodies, but we couldn’t do nothing about that.”

“I can remember it was kind of stormy and of course there’s no lights anywhere showing. We’re all in the darkness and the only thing ahead of me was another tug pulling another big monstrosity.”

“The tide was coming in so fast, the people were holding hands, I guess a lot of them couldn’t swim but they were holding hands till they got out of the boat. You had these half tracks that were goin’ up and they were poppin’ them off like crazy even the people, we were all together there and a lot of them got hit. You could see em’ goin’ over.”

“There were bodies all over the place, blood, arms, legs, the water was pretty red. You felt pretty bad when you see one of your own dead, it was pretty hard to take it.”

“ I never said much about it, because I don’t want to keep remembering it. The less I talk about it, the better it is.”

“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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