(photo courtesy of AP)
At 18, most of us were about to embark on living as an “adult”. Maybe go to college, maybe get your foot in the door of a career as the bottom rung of a latter. 80 years ago today tho…hundreds of thousands of barely at adulthood, some even lying on their paperwork as an “18 year olds”, stormed beaches of Northern France with code names like Utah and Omaha. Out of 73,000, including 15,000 dropping in from above just after Midnight, and another 23,250 on Utah, and 34,250 on Omaha beaches at 6:30 in the morning, 2501 Americans in a 24 hour span never made it out alive, or even to dry land. Those that did, have ONE HELL of a story to tell, or one to keep to themselves out of respect. Out of the 16.4 million that served in World War 2, less than 1 percent are still with us today.
I highly recommend you check out series like Band Of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and The Pacific so see what these men went thru on not only D-Day, but the battles of WW2.