06/06/2026
82 years ago. There are a few of the olds vets left, and there will be pictures in local papers, social media posts, stuff like that today, showing really old frail guys sitting in wheelchairs wearing American Legion hats. A large group of them is there in Normandy today, being celebrated by the locals. None of them is younger than 99. But no old guys jumped out of Dakotas, rode ships, or stormed beaches in Normandy that day. The average age of the men who fought at D-Day was 26. Many were only 17. Joseph Argenzio, Jr. was 17 when he landed on Bloody Omaha in the first wave that morning. The guys in front of him on the landing craft were mowed down when the ramp dropped. He went over the side and made it to the beach without his helmet and rifle. He served with his unit through the Normandy campaign and beyond. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a concentration camp. He survived the war and lived until he was 82. Roy Talhelm was 17 when he parachuted into France with the 506th PIR of the 101rst Airborne Division. He faked his birthdate to join when he was 16. He was killed in action on the 8th in fighting around Carentan. He is buried at the American Cemetary above the beaches and left a baby daughter he never got to hold back home.
The oldest guy there that day was 56-year-old General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Yes, his dad was THAT Teddy Roosevelt. General Roosevelt was the Deputy Division Commander of the 4th Infantry Division and came ashore in one of the first LCVPs to land at Utah Beach. He was the only general to land on the beaches in the first wave (most of the commanding generals of the airborne divisions jumped earlier that morning with their troopers). Roosevelt survived that day but died of a heart attack about a month later while with his division in France. General Patton was one his pallbearers and called him one of the bravest men he had ever known.
By the end of the Longest Day on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy France, the beachheads were secure, but they were not yet linked up. Many tough days were ahead including closing the Falaise Gap and trapping German Army Group B, the terrible storm that wrecked the beaches several days after the landing, and the battles in the hedgerows. Within days the Red Army would launch major attacks in the east to prevent the Germans from moving troops to reinforce the battle in France. 132,000 men landed on the beaches or died trying that day. Another 24,000 parachuted or rode gliders in. Hundreds of thousands more were on the thousands of ships and in the tens of thousands of planes in action that day. 12 Medals of Honor and 1 Victoria Cross were awarded that day. 9 posthumously. When that day ended, Rommel's strategy of defeating the invasion on the beaches had failed, and Germany's defeat was inevitable.
