D- Day: A Day to Remember
HOLMES: D-Day, the 6th of June, 1944. Thousands of ally troops forded to the beaches of Normandy with the aim to bring an end to Nazi, Germany. I had the pleasure this week of sitting down with two men who were there who were fighting for America that day. One is 93 and the other is 90; they're getting up there in age and many in the greatest generation as they're called are certainly starting to die off. But listen to them now in our conversation and listen to them give honor to what they say is the next great generation.</s>HOLMES: On the anniversary days, a lot of people, the government makes a big deal out of it, the media will talk about June 6th anniversary. What about you guys? What do you all do on the anniversary every year of D-Day?</s>ROBERT "PUNCHY" POWELL, WWII VETERAN: Quite often I'm asked to make talks to various groups or participate in some of the ceremonies because I was a World War II veteran and we're dying off pretty fast these days and there aren't many of us around.</s>HOLMES: You like being a part of that kind of stuff?</s>POWELL: I feel like today's generation does not know much about the history of World War II. I was introduced by an Atlanta schoolteacher as a fighter pilot from World War 11. So, I determined that I was going to do my best to help educate today's generations about World War II because it still has a tremendous impact on this country today.</s>HOLMES: What about you?</s>GUY GUNTER, WWII VETERAN: D-Day is my birthday. And I celebrate that with my children.</s>HOLMES: How old were you on D-Day? You turned what age?</s>GUNTER: 25.</s>HOLMES: That was a hell of a way to spend it.</s>GUNTER: I was in the</s>HOLMES: Both of you all since I have been talking to you have railed (ph) off stuff that happened many, many years ago now but you can tell me exact dates and you are even giving me exact times. Now does that stuff just never go away?</s>POWELL: We took off at 2:30 in the morning. Completely black takeoff and one of our pilots crashed into the tower on takeoff because we had no lights whatsoever. So, that's -- you remember things like that.</s>HOLMES: What was on your mind and maybe it was fear, maybe it was pride, maybe it was that sense of duty. Were things happening every minute that kind of put you in a different mind frame?</s>POWELL: It was a break for the rest of us. We took off by the fire -- the light of his burning aircraft --</s>HOLMES: Wow.</s>POWELL: The adrenaline was still running so good at that particular time I don't think we had any fear. We were just anticipating what we were getting into. But I don't think you had time for fear at that point.</s>HOLMES: Would you agree with that assessment?</s>GUNTER: When you're going on an invasion, you're scared to death. You don't know what the hell is going to happen. And you're not worrying too much about that. You're worrying about flying the equipment and doing the job you're supposed to do.</s>POWELL: He's right.</s>GUNTER: The rest of it comes naturally.</s>HOLMES: How did your day start and do you remember the time, as well?</s>GUNTER: Took off at 12:00 at night and we landed around 1:00, 25 miles back to the front. So, we had an easy deal. That was the easiest mission I flew because we had the element of surprise with us. We didn't have many people shooting at us. But the problem we had, of course, we went in with the paratroopers, as you know. But the paratroopers that went in before us were oscillating and had the old parachute and they would hit these poles and break their backs, their arms and their legs, it was awful. So, we had it easy. We'd go in regardless.</s>HOLMES: Still amazing to hear you say you had it easy.</s>GUNTER: It was, yes.</s>HOLMES: Did you know you were making history, I guess. I should say. Did you it feel like that at the time or were you doing your duty?</s>GUNTER: Doing what I was supposed to do.</s>POWELL: That's right.</s>GUNTER: They paid me. But when you sign those papers, you've got to do what you're supposed to do.</s>POWELL: That's right.</s>GUNTER: And you do the best job you can and you try to stay alive because when you land, it's easy. You or that guy.</s>HOLMES: Stay alive. How close did you come to not making it back?</s>GUNTER: I had several times I could bore you to death with -- everybody in the service has those times. But most of our action was in close and we did what we were going to do and tried to stay alive in a matter of hours or minutes. Because when you land, the closest we are here to the enemy.</s>HOLMES: Why did you want military service anyway?</s>GUNTER: Well, fight for my country naturally and also it's exciting. We get to fly airplanes and we get to do a lot of things that you can't do at home.</s>HOLMES: Now, he just said he wanted to fight for his country. Do you think over the years from when you guys were young men to today do you think that sentiment still exists in the soldiers who are going into the military now?</s>POWELL: Although they called us the greatest generation, I think these guys today are another great generation. They're doing -- they're involved in war that we wouldn't want to fight. At least we knew our enemy, they did not. Their enemy could walk up to them and drop a grenade and blow them away. But we, we knew our enemy. We could see those big black crosses on the airplanes we were fighting against. So, that's a big difference, but we still have a great generation out there today.</s>HOLMES: All right. Thanks to Punchy and Guy for taking the time out with me this week. We're at 24 minutes past the hour now. A lot of people might be feeling stressed these days. But maybe some and depending on where you live, a little less stressed. At least according to a new Gallup poll they're ranking some of the states. Now, D.C., not a state, of course, but the District of Columbia coming in at number five as far as the least stressed place in the country. That's followed by South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming. You'll never believe who's number one. I have that for you after the break.