Al Price (left) and Paul Andert talk about their experiences and keeping alive on the 69th anniversary of D-Day at Andert's house in Tulsa on Wednesday. STEPHEN PINGRY/Tulsa World
Al Price was in a group several years ago talking about his upcoming trip to Omaha Beach in France, where the D-Day invasion occurred 69 years ago Thursday and a place Price hadn't been since he helped storm that beach.
"This one lady got up and said, 'I've never been to Nebraska,'" Price said.
He was stunned. He began to realize people may just not know about the invasion of 150,000 Allied troops on June 6, 1944, that started their march across Europe to victory in World War II.
"I said right then we're going to get a group together and we're going to go to schools and tell kids about our experience," Price said.
Price and several other World War II veterans in Tulsa got together and started going around to schools to share stories with the kids and meeting regularly on their own for lunch to talk with each other about what they had experienced in the deadliest conflict in human history, with more than 400,000 American soldiers killed.
"We've been doing it for 17 years and we have book after book after books of letters from these kids," fellow D-Day veteran Paul Andert said. "It really makes a difference to know."
Both Price and Andert were involved in the Normandy invasion, but the number of men who participated is dwindling, with about 1,000 U.S. World War II veterans dying every day.
Members of the World War II group have not missed any of the school assemblies they scheduled until recently. There were more than 100 members of the World War II Veterans of Tulsa group who could go speak to schools, but Price and Andert are two of the last remaining few who are still physically able to go.
They still want to do whatever they can to share their stories, so that people know the sacrifices made by so many young men during the war.
Andert had a dream last week about the beaches of Normandy, a dream he hadn't had in some time.
"I could recall the beaches and the carnage there and how we felt," Andert said.
The feeling was one of fear. Andert and Price both came ashore after the initial surge but they could hear and see what was happening, and they both knew it was bad. Andert said he had participated in the invasions in North Africa and Sicily and knew generally what to expect, but many of those storming the beaches in front of them had not experienced that before.
"You're never used to all of it," Andert said. "So we knew that these guys were in hell because this was their first time ever to be fired on. That is the worst thing."
Andert said he still remembers the first time he was engaged in active fighting. Bullets would whiz by his head, but despite the fear, he knew he had to fight for his life.
"You suddenly realize no matter how much training you have that this is real," Andert said. "That guy is trying to kill me. If I don't kill him first he's going to get me."
When they landed, they saw a man clinging to one of the steel crisscrossing hazards meant to stop vehicles from landing on the beach. They thought he was dead, but he was frozen, clinging to the beam for his life.
Price had not participated in an amphibious invasion, but direct fire wasn't his biggest fear as a jeep driver.
"My biggest thing that I was scared of was land mines," Price said. "The Germans were very good with their land mines. It seemed like the jeep driver was the one who got killed."
When he got to the beach and drove the jeep into the water and onto land, he saw the death and destruction, and knew as a 19-year-old that death could be close.
"Too many people got hurt, too many people got killed," Price said. "It was nothing to see a group of dead guys or an airplane shot down. Death was all around you. It was very scary."
They saw what the enemy was capable of, and knew they had to fight hard to win.
"When they pulled dirty tricks on you, you better get down in the dirt with them or you're going to lose," Andert said.
Both men continued with the march across Europe, both participating in many battles and engagements, including the Battle of the Bulge.
They share those experiences with students, but with each other, they get to learn more about the war.
With so few World War II veterans remaining, they have started to help Korean War and Vietnam War veterans form similar group so they can carry on the legacies and stories. Price said he learned more about those wars from the veterans.
It comes back to the kids, Andert said. For them to appreciate their life and country, they need to know what was sacrificed for it, he said.
"If the kids don't get it, how can you expect them to know?" Andert said.
Jerry Wofford 918-581-8310
jerry.wofford@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: 1944 D-Day veterans share story for the ages
