D-Day veteran: Americans should never forget it
"We needed to put down the tyranny that Hitler had created," said veteran Phillip Hauck.
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- Seventy years ago this Friday, a 50 mile stretch on the beaches of Normandy would be painted red. The D-Day invasion would change the course of world war two and ultimately the course of history.
"We needed to put down the tyranny that Hitler had created," said veteran Phillip Hauck.
It was 1944 and the allies were preparing to liberate German-occupied France. The night before D-Day, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower, spoke to his soldiers.
"He said 35 to 40 percent of you will not return. It was more than that," said Hauck. He is one of four surviving D-Day veterans from the Central Valley who spoke at a luncheon Thursday. More than 425,000 allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the battle of Normandy -- a battle that lasted roughly one month.
"A lot of my buddies got wounded on the beach, a lot of them got killed on the beach," said Corporal Dave McCoy.
"We'd practice a lot of it of what we were supposed to do. When people started shooting at us and before we bailed out of the airplanes I thought well this is for real this time," said paratrooper Robert Barney.
D-Day was seven decades ago. But the message from the four veterans is clear.
"Americans should never forget it. It was time in our history which we don't speak enough about that changed the direction of America," said Hauck.
An important history lesson from four American heroes.
