129th Division News Today

Operation overlord and then here in normandy, france in the weeks that followed democrat these wonderful edges of these young men and -- among them he told me about his memories from 80 years ago about what he thinks of the nation that he and others fought and so many died for and how he thinks its doing today. >> im steve mellen cough and im -- i was with the 29th division, one of the ed divisions and i was on omaha beach -- omaha beach. im originally from rhode island and then my work after to...

Training because -- but because the new we were going to this battle, we got 17 weeks training. but then after the 17th week, we came over to england and i trained five additional months in st. ives before we went and. so this whole group of men, we knew after a little bit that we were going over here. >> martha: once you made up the beach and im sure you lost a lot of people that you knew probably on the ship, right. >> yes. >> martha: what was that like for you? >> all say this, on first day t...

Richard E. Scruggs, World War I soldier - Kansas Memory

Cleo D. Castor, World War I soldier - Kansas Memory

Colonel george taylor whose 16th infantry regiment would join in the first wave was asked what would happen if the germans stopped right then and there, cold on the beach, just stopped them, what would happen? this great american replied, why, the 18th infantry is coming in right behind us. the 26th infantry will come on, too. then there is the second infantry division already afloat and the 9th division and the 2nd armored and the 3rd armored and all the rest. maybe the 16th wont make it, but s...

Warriors from utah beach and allies from juneau along with the airborne and the french patriots. private first class russell picket of the 29th divisions famed 116th infantry regiment had been wounded in the first wave that landed on omaha beach. at a hospital in england, private picket vowed to return to battle. im going to return, he said. im going to return. six days after d-day, he rejoined his company. two-thirds had been killed already. many had been wounded within 15 minutes of the invasi...

And continued stand side-by-side but the commemoration, the focus moves onto commemoration of the day. this is the operation that began the liberation of nazi occupied france, laid the foundation of the allied victory on the western front. it was the largest naval invasion in history which by the fifth day saw 326,000 allied troops landed on the shores of normandy. >> as we mark this solid anniversary of d-day we remember the defense of our nations does not begin on the battlefield but within th...

>> this day have set upon a mighty endeavor. a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity. >> and, of course, you cant yunsd state the u.s. involvement in this. six beaches that were stormed. u.s. is responsible for two of them. omaha and utah both names gone down in history. omaha beach where the most casualties were lost. its believed that the first and 29th division suffered 2,000 casualties on omaha beach that day. we have leade...

Bedford boys belonged 129th division they landed on the deadliest sector of omaha beach which was the deadliest beach. out of 180 men, 112 were killed. by lunchtime on d-day, maybe 10 12 guys could actually stand and fight. >> so 10 out of 180. >> you have to go back to the civil war to experience a loss like that. so it was a huge sacrifice. >> veteran nick ju ris shared memories from d-day. >> its not easy to talk about. >> he and his men came before the girs wave of troops who stormed omaha b...

That have been running some ads in key states around the country to oppose hagels nomination. the nice to have you both with us today. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks, jenna. >> i would like to start with you if i could. you wrote a piece recently on hagels pending nomination where you say his pending nomination triggered the release, and im quoting here from attack chihuahuas from the republican party. among those you mentioned is senator john mccain. senator mccain served as you have. you h...