June 6, 1944: D-Day: Utah Beach. Many of the GIs fighting on the beach that day witnessed something extraordinary, a solitary figure walking upright across the sand, cane in one hand and pistol in the other, directing men forward, leading them over the seawall and inland, all while under fire from the Germans.
The cane was not for show, for this soldier had been wounded in combat over 25 years earlier in World War I, an injury which had contributed to his arthritis. Those who came closest to this man would also have noted signs of his age: the wrinkled cheeks and the creased eyes.
