RAW: WWII veteran recalls storming Omaha Beach on D-Day

when you grew up in Brooklyn what what your family was like before the war what it was like we're very close-knit family I had two brothers and a sister and we lived in a neighborhood like like today you know the mall is four miles away get in the car and go to the mall when we lived in Brooke and everything was a block away if he wants to go to a grocery store or drugstore or anything like that what you do is walk one block and everything was there for you and then of course I went to a high school called Lafayette High School there was a wonderful school and I only put the three and a half years in there I left the high school in my senior year I think we must have about sixteen boys we all we all volunteer at the same time each one of us took a different either army or Navy or Coast Guard whatever it may be and my mom got blessed my mother she had three sons my brother was in the Army and he went as far within the third army with Patton's army he went into Germany and of course I did the Atlantic and the Pacific and my kid brother we were so happy that he missed the second world war then the Korean war came along and he volunteered to go into the Marines he was in the Chosin Reservoir when the Chinese came over the top and luckily he survived he was a ba our man so much my poor mother she had three kids Oh combat I don't know how she did it my mother was a very strong person why why did you decide to sign up when you're in high school what what drove you to do that and when Pearl Harbor happened yeah everybody was patriotic everybody wanted to go into the service and do their part and and I first started listening in 17 but my mom wouldn't sign for me and I wanted to get in before the war ended I taught her a year though the war would end I didn't know was gonna live for years so I was anxious to get in and I have no regrets I missed some very very wonderful people and I lost a lot of people yeah yeah what was it like after you got in for you what's that what was it like after you got in the military for you when I got in you know when you go into the military what they do they break you down the first day that you're in you the missus our general chief petty officer says I want you to forget everything that you know of cool today because from today on you're gonna be military you're gonna do it all way and it's very ironic because today a lot of kids are committing suicide the kids from Vietnam and Iraq and we're losing a lot of kids from suicide and I think the reason is because when we went in the service we did two or three weeks basic training and they taught us how to be military and when the war ended they gave me a piece of paper in 86 dollars and put me on a train to send me home that was a lost person who all lost they broke us down to bring us into the service but they didn't do what I think to you know make it easy for us coming out they should have like a basic training when you leave the service that's why a lot of kids today they come home and they're lost the first time I had Liberty remember I had Liberty I couldn't wait to go home to see my mom not two weeks and I went there the first I was very happy I saw my mom and my brothers and sisters the next day my mom went to work my my kid brother went to school my dad went to work and there was nobody in my neighborhood my age because there were all the service and I was lost I couldn't wait to go back to my ship I was so happy to get Liberty and after two days I was happy to go back is interesting so 75 years since d-day now which I'm sure doesn't seem like it to you yesterday yeah yeah you know a lot of people don't realize d-day they wrote a lot of books and a lot of movies about it the whole d-day was only 18 hours we dropped two boats at four o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock at night the beach was ours it was only 18 hours the whole thing people make a big spectacle you know did they did they it was 18 hours that's all it was but we did was 2,000 man on the beach I said man I shouldn't say men 2,000 kids we were all kids we were all kids we were too young to drink maybe too young to vote my words too young to die 18 19 20 years old there were kids some of mine even shave never shave the affording Germans that were in the war for four years some of them came out of Russia they were seasoned and with all that seasoned us 18 20 year old kids we whipped their ass sorry I shouldn't use that language what are you what do you remember about that game what I remember the most I'm gonna tell you a story I don't tell it to anybody because it's so hard for me and the first way my job was to drop the rim and the machine guns were hitting the ramp in the front of the ramp but I knew when I dropped the ramp the machine gun was gonna come into the boat but I had to drop the ramp because the jokes that I get out hey this is the first place so when I dropped the ramp the Germans had 14 machineguns mg42 machine was capable 160 rounds a minute when I dropped the ramp all those machine guns opened up and the front of my boat 7 8 10 15 kids I don't know they just went down like like you're cutting wheat now I was 3/4 of the way back because I had to take the ramp and drop the rear so I was 3/4 the way back so I had some protection because the kids that were in front of me the troops in front of it they himself Dave so what the brothers they were supposed to hit me and they were they were falling down and there was two kids struggles I call them stragglers they kept back because they didn't want to be in the front of the boat because they knew they would die so they stayed back and they stayed near me which is a bad thing because besides the machine guns on the beach it was machine gun in the hill and they were shooting down from there so that's in a course fire and these two boys since they stay close to me they was drawing fire to me now the first boy was about 4 feet away from me he got machine gun in the stomach the stomach was taken out of his luckily that kid somehow he survived the war even though his stomach was ripped open the second kid he was about two feet away from it he wasn't so lucky the machine gun took his helmet off and part of the skull and he was crying help me help me help me and he fell at my feet and I couldn't help him I had no morphine and nothing to help so the only thing I could do I started praying for our Father who art in heaven and never finished the prayer and it seemed to soothe him they stop they stop screaming help me help me when I said the prayer I reached down and I touches it touches him because I wanted to him - no it wasn't alone one law strengthened he had he put his face around my thumb and squeeze my tongue maybe so Mississippi to say it's all right it's not right but I know he was gonna die and at that moment he spit up blood and he died he died he was a kid probably 18 19 20 years old yeah read here he died right in front of it and I went into shock I mean I wanted this job if it's just a little boy just a little boy I went into shock and I passed out and I can't sue I don't know maybe a minute to miss I don't know how long it was and when I passed out when I came to or rather the Coxon was yelling picked the ramp up let's get out of here because we wrote of course for you and I pulled a lever and nothing happened I pulled it the second time nothing happened I pulled it the third time then I put it on automatic it never came up so my job now was to think that I read every everybody was depending upon me so how to get to the ramp I was three chords the way back I couldn't even see the rim because there were dead bodies in front of me it's at a crawl the dead bodies and I must have been a madman because I was crying and I'm saying to these kids that dead forgive me from walking over you and I started going towards the ramp and somehow another kid came along I don't to this day I don't know what is either cruel men or maybe another soldier I don't know and we started crawling towards the ramp and when we got towards the ramp I realized why the ramp wouldn't come up it was two dead soldiers on the ramp they never got out of the boat so they were water locked because they were on the ramp first I had 90 pounds of these soldier had 90 pounds of equipment on their back excuse me a second there was no way I was gonna move this this guy I made 125 pounds I couldn't lift them up so what I did I pointed to his belt to the other guy and I grabbed a belt and I started pulling and when I pulled he moved about two or three inches and right then and there I know I could do this I could do this so I little by little by little Bobby took 40 minutes 30 minutes I don't know I got him off the ramp and the ramp went up now the Coxon how'd he get the boat it was all obstacles in the water it was mines in the water they were right in the middle of them and there was telephone poles and the top of the telephone poles was the mine just sitting there wasn't it wasn't nailed down of a school down it was just sitting on top of the telephone pole if you boat nudge that telephone pole the mind becoming your boat killing everybody now these are not in order to remind these with teller Minds I tell him I'm when they explode they don't explode up they explore sideways take a man's legs up up so the ain't god bless him he was so good he got us he got us out of this mess and we headed back to his my ship and we had a lot of boys that were born there pretty bad they were crying mama mama mama and when we headed towards my ship we saw this big white ship with a red cross on the side it was a hospital ship so instead of going towards my ship we went towards the hospital ship because we figured if we can get some of these only guys aboard that hospital ship maybe weakest save some lives if we could save one life it was worth it so we pulled alongside the hospital ship and two angels jumped in my boat I call them angels because they did something we couldn't do we were spent we couldn't do anything and what they did they peeled off the dead soldiers to get to the wounded soldiers and they were able to get about seven I don't mean them exactly could have been saved could have been eight I don't know and they they got these wounded boys and they put him in the hospital ship and I said to myself I said thank God these can stand a chance maybe they're gonna live this day and without the two guys they were on their boat went back to the hospital ship and we went back to my ship when we got back to my ship we still have wounded aboard not serious but we had wounded aboard and we had that aboard this the boat and so when we got close to my boat they dropped a sled so we could put the dead bodies and they wounded and then the crane took him up and somebody yelled I want one man from every boat to come aboard to be interrogated so I got on the sled and I went aboard when I went aboard I'm on the ship stay with me I'm gonna stay with me I'm alive I'm alive and I gotta make a decision do I stay aboard the ship unless somebody take my place why do I go back into the belly of the beast face those machine guns again and I said to myself this is what I was trained to do and I made 15 ships they told me I didn't know that they told me we made 15 shows of my boat PA 26 28 minutes 15 ships so then I had to be interrogated it was a naval officer and a sergeant yet a lot of stripes I'm great big sergeant he put his hand on my shoulder he says son that it was like a hug I needed a hug and he touched me and he says son he says those machines gonna could only fire so long then they have to change the barrel you wait and when they're changing the barrel that's when you drop the ramp again so I said all right I said how much time do I have he's just seven to ten seconds that's not much time but I did like he told me and I waited and I waited and while I was waiting the troops aboard the boat start screaming let the rim down we got to get out of here they feel closed and they want to go out and be killed so I waited my way that way and all of a sudden there was a law that his job changed the barrels and I dropped the rim and this time I got eight guys on the beach of course they will cut down immediately I'd rather not go any further okay let me ask you this you talked earlier about how you haven't talked you didn't talk about this for a long time why are you why'd you decide to talk about seventy years I never mentioned it my family my son is here he could tell you when we're on the beach to Tom Brokaw and Tom Brokaw says to me he says I understand you have a big book with all pictures of the bow see you for it and my son said what book I never told anybody anything it was too hard to talk about so somehow Tom Brokaw he got it out of me yes me a few questions and once the genie was out of the bottle you can't put it back and then after that I wanted to talk about it and then I go to seminars I go to Columbine High School and I talk to these young kids I went the usaa the insurance company I talk to them I wanted to get out and I was so they don't forget but we had to go through we fought for peace the Jeremy's forth to kill only for what the fifties you're going back for the 75th anniversary in June and and you're taking your whole family you said and a lot of your friends and a big group and what do you think it's gonna be the like thinking back 75 years this bill may it house it's going to be a mid the 70th anniversary they were buses backed up from here to Brooklyn I mean nothing moves this is going to be the 75th it's going to be much much much worse nothing's gonna move we all we already got some retainer Aires that they're closing highways nobody's gonna get through the highways are gonna be closed so if you want to go to the beach you got to get there probably four o'clock in the morning before everything starts because if you wait till later run you're not going to see anything yeah it's very important for me to go back yeah yeah and God bless people like Jake who take us back because if it wasn't people like Jake we probably wouldn't go back because it's very expensive maybe we would have done two one time but not 11 times 10 or 11 times it's to people like him that we're able to do this you not only think it's important to pass along this message to kids obviously because you talk to kids a lot but when you go back with kids and and and say you're on the beasts Shore or whatever in one of the museums or whatever you need the kids you know we have a tendency in this country to put the young generation down we got a great generation coming up these these kids are great this month they're much smarter than I was and all of his worth and I loved it I loved talking to them because they is every pertinent one of the kids they asked me if I was killed during the war but other than that they had some very very very good questions so I could see I'm getting through to them about three or four months ago the church that I went through that I go to the Muncie's he knew that I was in the war and he said Frankie says how about talking to the congregation so I said all right and the whole church was there and I gave my spiel like I just told you I felt like that and then there was question and answers and woman raised one woman raised her hand and she said to me why don't you write a book and I thought about it but I couldn't write it because while I'm writing the tears will come down on the paper and I probably have a little blob of paper so I decided not to write a book so but I will talk about it I want to I want to get it out there so people don't forget it's like the Holocaust we should never forget we should never forget I can understand I can't understand a group of educated people the Germans these people went to the Opera they took their kids to Sunday school they went on picnics these are not Mongolians these were educated people how could they do such a thing how could they do such a thing need to get across but this is my last question I promise I just met you obviously but I can already tell that you're very proud of of what you accomplished over there talking to a marshal though hey I just look right to this day many of nice I'm I'm embedded I can't sleep and I think of that kid with the red hair and the side of his face was shot that Saturday so your kid and I think of that kid he was only one it was hundreds around me that died or wounded but this one kid touched my heart because he fell to my feet and he wasn't asking me help me help me I couldn't help I couldn't help myself how could I help him but you know you all made such a big difference over there and who knows what the world would be like right yeah well I'm gonna be 94 in May so there's not gonna be any more Frank defeatist so we got to get the word out before we're gone because 10 years down the road there's not going to be any Franklin visas or anybody that was in Normandy or Pearl Harbor or a lot it's gonna be forgotten history we shouldn't let it die

Channel: 9NEWS

Views: 249,077

Rating: 4.9464002 out of 5

Keywords: utah, documentary, history, WW2, world war 2

Id: 5Zx3X08saO8

Length: 26min 25sec (1585 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/skrulewi]

Fuck. My grandfather is 97 and was the 'head geek' (engineer and repair tech) on a destroyer in thr Pacific. He's told some stories but I should record him. He's still sharp, and he just moved nearby. I'm posting to motivate myself.

[u/d20gaming]

Having walked on the beaches of Normandy, and looked up at the expanse of the cliffs, I can honestly say I have no idea how young men were able to do what they did. These guys were heroes. "Too young to drink. Too young to vote. Not too young to die."

[u/otismalotis]

Powerful testimony. Tremendous respect. Helps me understand why so many for so long refused to talk about their experiences. You can see the pain is still there, even after 75 years.

[u/adramaleck]

This man is literally haunted...when he tell the story around 6:00 + mins he is watching that shit happen in front of his eyes. Anytime I have some stupid problem I am gonna think of this shit...Fucking hell what a tough bastard.

[u/tamarockstar]

War is horrifying.

[u/Osiris32]

For a little background:

The ship he was with, based on the hat and jacket, is the USS Samuel Chase, which was an Arthur Middelton-class attack transport. She was built in 1940-1941, and commissioned in June of 1942, under the command of the US Navy but with a US Coast Guard crew. Her compliment was 36 officers and just over 450 enlisted, with space for between 1,200 to 1,400 landing troops or 3,000 tons of cargo.

Her first combat was during Operation Torch, the allied landings in Morocco and Algeria in November of 1942. The Samuel Chase laid off Algiers, sending wave after wave of landing craft into shore, while being bombed and torpedoed by the Luftwaffe. She was straddled with bombs twice and at one point had a torpedo go between her and her anchor chain. During this operation she was credited with shooting down three German aircraft, and the British crews in the Torch fleet began referring to her as by the nickname Battleship.

Her next mission was Operation Husky, the July 1943 invasion of Sicily. Part of a large amphibious force of over 1,000 ships, the Chase was carrying a large portion of the US 7th Army to it's beachhead at the town of Gela. Due to superior smallboatmanship and the constant cover fire of the Chase and her escorts, not a single man was lost during the landings, giving her a new nickname, the Lucky Chase.

Not long after the Chase was risen in stature, as it became the flagship for Admiral John Hall, Commander Southern Force, for Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Salerno. After disembarking over 1,000 soldiers from the 45th Thunderbirds division, the Chase returned to Sicily and onloaded trucks, halftracks, ammo, and various supplies, which she then brought back to Salerno for offloading. This was her second close brush with disaster, as the German airforce struck, landing bombs close enough to her to splash water into the bridge and rattle equipment off shelves. She returned to the US a month later for repairs.

Six months later the Chase was one of three large transport ships that made up Assault Group O-1 during D-Day. Their assignment was to get the men and equipment of 1st Infantry into the easternmost portions of Omaha Beach, Easy Red and Fox Green sectors. The Chase, along with the USS Henrico and MoWT Empire Anvil, laid off the coast about 11 miles and launched the small landing craft in the pre-dawn darkness. During this action, Motor Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Frank Freeman earned the Bronze Star with valor device for courageously taking his landing craft over to a nearby LCI to offload more soldiers for a trip into the beach, despite being seriously wounded in the head that caused him to see double.

Less than a month later the Chase sailed for the Mediterranean, to participate in the Operation Anvil/Dragoon landings in southern France. After embarking troops in Naples, the Chase then landed them at the Bay of Pampelonne in early August of 1944. She then spent the next two months ferrying troops, many of whom were exiled French soldiers under Charles de Gaule, from Italy and Algeria to various ports in France, before returning to Boston for repairs and refitting.

In January of 1945, the Chase was ordered to the Pacific, to participate in the Island Hopping campaigns. She arrived in Leyte in March, and began amphibious operations training. However, she struck a shoal on March 16th, 1945, and was forced to return to San Francisco for repairs. She would not return to the Pacific Theater until July 24th, when she joined the fleet off Okinawa during the taking of the island, enduring numerous air attacks before departing for Ulithi Atoll on August 10th. After the Japanese surrendered on August 15th, the Chase was sent to San Pedro Bay in the Philippines, to embark occupation troops and deliver them to Yokohama, Japan. After that, starting in November of 1945, she joined Operation Magic Carpet, the multi-theater operation to return soldiers and sailors to the US from their deployment stations. She had four voyages under that operation, from December through May of 1946. In July of 1946, she returned to Norfolk, Virgina, where she was inactivated and decommissioned. She entered mothball with the James River Defense Fleet, where she stayed until 1973, being sold to Consolidated Steel out of Brownsville, TX, for scrap.

In total, she earned five battle stars, two combat action ribbons, and several individual crew members earned awards including Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, and Legions of Merit.

[u/Rook_Stache]

"Too young to drink, too young to vote, but we weren't too young to die."

[u/AGuyNamedRyan333]

This is how you tell the story of war. No narrator, no dramatic music, no cutting to filler or other BS. Just a man who was there, telling his story.

[u/hamsack]

Wow, very real, and raw recounting. Thanks for sharing.