The Boy on the Beach

Despite the book’s near-universal praise for its candor and humor, Friedenberg does not enjoy recounting his war stories.
“He still gets nightmares, and he think back to the men he couldn’t save,” Friedenberg’s wife, Phyllis, told FoxNews.com.

“I have scars on my body, and scars in my head as well,” he said. “They will never heal.”
Other soldiers interviewed by FoxNews.com who took part in the D-Day invasion, including Rufus Broadaway, a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, recall the day in a much different light.
“I had forgotten that [today] is D-Day,” Broadaway told FoxNews.com when reached in Gainesville, Fla. “We don’t have any plans but to have our flag on our lawn.”

Sixty-eight years ago today, Broadaway leaped from his "hit" plane from the lowest altitude he had ever jumped -- maybe 300 feet, he said -- and landed on an apple tree.

“The roadway was covered with debris, a lot of dead bodies, injured soldiers, and soldiers so petrified that they couldn’t even move,” Broadaway said. “The air was full of shots and shells. But my captain had us going along. It was a miracle that we got across that causeway. By that time, the Germans had retreated.
“I wouldn’t take anything back,” Broadaway continued. “I will forever be proud of it and hold that experience close. I’m so thankful that I was a part of it.”