After flying a number of missions with "Little Rollo," it wasn't long before we would fly her in one of the most famous missions of the 446th Bomb group. On June 6, 1944, the 446th bomb group would lead the Eighth Air Force across the channel towards the beaches on the French coast for the invasion of France. This mission was known as D-Day.

The mission began with our take-off during early morning darkness. The air assault was to take place about a half hour before the ground troops were to storm the beaches. As we approached our target from the air, it was an awesome site to witness. The entire ensemble of military branches were involved and it was an incredible display of force. The air was full of planes from left to right as far as the eye could see. Planes were flying in towards land for an assault while others were flying out returning from their assault. Our mission was to drop our bombs in the designated area well ahead of the troops and return home. Unfortunately, due to cloud cover we could not see results of our bombing rampage. Through some occasional breaks in the cloud cover, you could see the channel below full of ships. Occasionally you could see flashes of light which were probably the firing of guns from of our Naval vessels, bombarding the French beachheads. As our good fortune would have it, we encountered no enemy fighters or flak on this day.

History was in the making and I, just a 19 year old kid, was seeing it from 15,000 feet in a B-24 bomber. This is a day I would never forget. I thank God that I was in the air and not on the ground that day as many brave men were lost.