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PFC Lloyd Carter, Athens, Georgia
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Jim McCann details the symbols of WWII.
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The Big Red One also nick-named The Fighting First.
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PFC Carter received the Purple Heart and Silver Star.
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The end is in sight for Operation Overlord
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Each rock, each structure's shape is symbolic to the story of Operation Overlord.
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The walkway features the busts of leaders and decision-makers.
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The memorial honors the American and Allied Forces.
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PFC Carter's sewing kit, issued to all soldiers.
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From the landing boat (left) to the beach, soldiers went forward.
People tell me it's not good to live in the past. Lloyd Carter tells me that, too.
A life-time ago in 1941, nineteen-year old Carter plowed the fields in rural Georgia and milked cows for the University of Georgia. On his 21st birthday, he was on a "cruise", as he calls it, to North Africa with the First Infantry Division of the Big Red One, and in June, 1944, he lay on Omaha Beach in France, shot in the arm, wondering what it would be like to be plowing fields once again in the scorching South.
At 92, he doesn't talk much about that morning when he and his buddies stormed Omaha Beach. The day we spoke, his fifty-year old daughter who listened as intently as I, said that this was as much as she had ever heard. For four hours, we were hypnotized at how easily he was transported back. He choked up when he spoke of Eisenhower's voice wafting through the ship's steel cavities the night before the invasion. "Good luck," he told his men. The next morning, still pitch black and waiting to exit the landing boat, Carter remembers "about 600 ships" and how he "could hear them shooting," pulverizing the beach. He admits he was scared, but said he was "pretty calm. I was trained."
The closer to land, the louder the commands became. "Get off there as fast as you can. The quicker you get to land the safer you will be." With single vision, he waded through the waist-deep water on route to the beach until the barbed wire that separated the beach from the inland seized his legs. With a pocket knife, he cut himself loose, and as "forever" passed, he lost his helmet, got shot and ruined his field jacket, as his commander pointed out in jest.
Medics rescued Carter twelve hours later and transported him to a landing boat, then to the ship, and with the only things he had in the world - a knife, a billfold and a New Testament - Carter headed toward England. After two weeks in the hospital, a nurse asked him if he would "like to go back to the United States." Carter replied, "That's what I been looking for ever since I got here."
Carter will show anyone his medals as well as his sewing kit that somehow survived. His well-worn wool uniform complete with the Big Red One patch still has its place in the back of his closet, along with his hat. I asked if he would put the hat on for me. He shook his head and said, "no."
On June 6, it will have been 70 years since Carter landed on Omaha Beach. At the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, on this warm June morning, generations will come together to honor the American and Allied forces. The names that they will read carved into marble stones didn't make it. It is their story as well as the story of Private First Class Lloyd Carter that this memorial seeks to revere.
"Maintaining accuracy is important," says manager Jim McCann. Research is on-going and names have been added as recently as 2012. The memorial is located in Bedford because they lost more people per capita than any other city in the United States. By the end of the day, Bedford's community of about 3,200 had lost 19 soldiers.
"Every day here is D-Day," McCann says. "We celebrate for what it meant in the 20th Century and what it will mean to the 21st Century. We want you to learn, but we'd rather you be inspired."
We invite you to walk along with us at the National D-Day Memorial and read more about Lloyd Carter. If it is possible to be in Bedford for the 70th anniversary, you must go. If you do, please share your experience with us on our website. We have posted the schedule of the weekend's events.
Many survivors of the Normandy Invasion will walk the landscape of the D-Day Memorial the first weekend in June, and I suspect that for these three days, the past will become the present. Soldiers will talk, and remember, and possibly, share a few laughs and even more tears. And then, once the weekend's memories are put in their proper perspective, those thoughts will return to the recesses of their minds - much like PFC Carter's wool uniform in the back of the closet, and life will continue. Our life will continue because of their sacrifice.
Judy and Len Garrison make their home in Athens, Georgia. Len, an IT manager for a major Atlanta company, and Judy, an editor and travel writer, want to hear from you as you follow along on their travels and then experience them for yourself. They would love to hear your comments and travel or profile suggestions at seeingsouthern@gmail.com. They make their home on Two Coots Travel, and you can always follow their travels on Twitter at @judyhgarrison and @seeing_southern. Don't forget to like them on facebook.