On the D-Day sands where his medic father treated the dying, his son asks himself 75 years later: How can I follow in his footsteps? johnleicester from Omaha Beach:
VIDEO: A golden sun bathed the beach as Atanay and his friends remembered his father on Omaha Beach.
“I can’t explain the gratitude I have, how lucky I am to have him as a father, what he did for us, his sacrifice, everybody’s sacrifice, everybody who was on this beach that day,” Randall said. “The ‘greatest generation’ is true.” Silhouetted in a line against the fiery sun rising above the mercury-blue waters, the four of them waded together into the waves and pictured the hell that met the troops 75 years ago.
Manuel Atanay was 20 when he hit the beach with the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, in the first 30 minutes of the landings. Omaha was the bloodiest of the five code-named D-Day beaches, with steep bluffs from which German defenders raked the Americans with fire. On the sand, Randall counted his steps, trying to work out how long it might have taken his father to cross the flat expanse at low tide with no cover.“He said it was a big blur,” Randall said.
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