This is a personal account of a young man's journey from a farm in Minnesota to participating in the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach, highlighting his unexpected path into military service and his harrowing experiences during the landing.
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to the back of me there was a soldier so
so I
holl hey buddy you have you got a
match no
answer I turned and looked and there was
no head under the helmet you are about
to Embark upon the great crusade to meet
this mounting aggression and make no
mistake about it good will
prevail I was born in oana Minnesota
and and raised in two miles west of Hope
on a farm my dad could not afford to pay
for my room and board in town we lived
out in the country
and I was I was going to quit high
school and I I got a
job helping a lady that had eight roomman
roomman
borders and uh for for my room board so
my cousin chick and I were walking
around on a Saturday morning and walked
by the Roxy Theater and is
said Saturday
mat Jean ay America's favorite cowboy 10
cents between us we couldn't come up
with a
penny he says Jake the National
Guard is at advertising they want to
fill their ranks this is when Hitler
took the the San land from
Czechoslovakia and Ann nexted
Austria so the National Guard Was
1938 and he said chick says let's go
down to the Armory and and enlist I says
chirk we're we're 15 years old you have
old chick said to me
me
Jake we'll go down there and when they
ask you how old you are you look them
right in the eye and say 18 Years
sir he he looked up what can I do for
you young men
wow that that was
a INSP give us inspiration right there
being called young
men when we were just 15y old boys I
said sir we'd like to join the National
Guard and I'm looking at him and
thinking 18 18 18 He said what year were
you born whoa wait a minute wait a minute
minute
I was I was born in
1922 take three away from from that that's
that's
1919 1919 sir he says sign right here
then the Japanese hit Pearl
Harbor and the next thing I
knew the 135th infantry regimen was
moved to Fort Dixon New Jersey for
embarkation so we we went [Music]
[Music]
overseas and uh started off out in in
Arma North North Ireland got transferred
into G3 of fifth core I didn't even know
what G3 was at that time and fifth core
what in the world is that man I'm a from
out
core there's two cores under every
Army and a core has two divisions on in
it man I'm I'm a from an infantry
regiment you can't get any
lore and here I am up up next to Army
and G3
G's in in the
core G1 is Personnel G2
G2
intelligence where they go out and get
Intelligence on the enemy and they inform
inform
G3 the plans and training
plans I became
people Colonel Hill picked me to go with
him to plan the
invasion we we went to
Portsmouth and that's where General
Eisenhower and all his staff was down
there I I didn't see him we worked on
the troop movements
of of our two divisions under us we had
we had the first Division and the 29th
division under us that landed on Omaha
Beach on
dday that's uh pretty pretty much how I
got in on The Invasion on dday I I
landed w w with the troops from the
first division
the 16th Infantry
Regiment and uh when we when we got to
uh the shore we we landed with water
right up to our
chins they left us off too far
out and uh I had been the first one on
LS so I sat right next to the pilot a Navy
pilot and
uh when the the ramp went
down and they got into the water and
out I was the last one in line now I'll
tell you that they they had over a million
million
mines in
that Omaha Beach
a a million
million
and there were other lines going in at
the same time that we were going in and
once in a while the SP of water would
shoot up in the air somebody stepped on
a mine I was more afraid of stepping on
a mine than I was at the gunfire coming
at us
and and when when we got up out out of
the water water I separated from the 16th
16th regiment
regiment
and I got behind a
two machine guns the German machine
guns just m machine guns for
42s shot 1,200 rounds a minute twice as
fast as any of ours
ours
so they they had me pinned down
from from both
sides of of the
cliffs and I got behind this little BM that
was 6 8 in
tall and that berm saved my life there
and while they were shooting right there
in front of that BM I I've dragged out a cigar
cigar
holder put it in my
wet I I I I I could see see per peripheral
peripheral
vision to the back of me there was a
soldier so so I
H hey buddy you have you got a
match no
answer I turned and looked and there was
helmet it it probably saved my life to
turn it's like the soul of that guy said
get up and get out of here now and by some
some
miracle those machine guns stopped to
reload or to change barrels or something
I got up and
ran to toward the
cliffs and while I was running they got
started again and they were firing at me
and I said God
what is happening I'm getting fired out
I can't I can't see anybody to shoot back
back
at I made it to the cliff without a
scratch at that time they open up the
path up up the cliff through this Ravine
that had been filled with h barb
wire couldn't get up there and the
Bangalore Torpedoes came in and they sh
shoved those up there and blasted out
that barb wire and that's when the
Germans cleared out because once you get
behind them you you got them dead to
rights so
uh I to tell you the truth I do not
remember going up that Cliff or up that
Ravine and everything the the next thing
I remember Madison Rich Corporal Madison
rich and I were digging our
our fox
holes it was 7:00 at
night on dday I had
found a
litter brand
new was just laying there so I took my
pox a little bit long ER and put that
litter in the bottom I was going to
sleep on that avoid the wet
sand and 7:15 at night
someone said from hollowed from the
command post Sergeant Larson Colonel
immediately so I went in reported to
Colonel Hill
and he says Sergeant he says I I just
got word from first
Army they want me to keep G3 open 24
hours a
shift I said starting right now he is
starting right now
now
back still wasn't 7:30 so I I went back
told Madison rich I said Maddie you you
can sleep in my Foxhole tonight I got
that litter in there and he says Jake I
got my fart sack already here so he laid
his M1 grand rifle on my litter and he
went to sleep I went to work and at midnight
midnight
German reconnaissance plane came came
over and started taking pictures they had
had
parachutes with
magnesium flares in there that lighten
up the sky
like better than daylight and our
anti-aircraft then started shooting
him and after a while that that and I
don't remember a thing until somebody
came to relieve me at 7:30 in the
morning at 7:30 they says you're off
Jake so I went went to my Foxhole and
here Madison
Rich was getting up from his
and he reached down and picked up his
rifle off of my litter and it broke in
two a piece of shrapnel from
our gun shooting at that reconnaissance
plane piece of our shrapnel came down
and hit that
rifle and broke that rifle into
two there is a
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