On this day, William Vick Rainey looked around and witnessed an armada of ships and planes the world had never seen before. 

A member of the Fourth Infantry Division, my father came ashore on Utah Beach as a radio operator in an armored car.

The Fourth was fortunate that day. The 101st Airborne’s Easy Company, featured in the TV series Band of Brothers, had taken out key gun emplacements, and Allied bombardments proved effective.

As Dad always noted, things were not the same at nearby Omaha Beach, where the landing proved to be brutal and bloody. At other beaches, British and Canadian forces faced nothing that approached Omaha.

Shortly after getting off the beach, German shelling started. Still, there were about 200 casualties from the assault, compared to thousands at Omaha.

Once inland, he admitted to his unit “liberating” a cask of hard cider, or applejack as he called it, from a Normandy farmhouse and finding a way to take it along.

The division later rolled into Paris. The accompanying picture shows one of the lightly armored vehicles that carried him through Europe.

The battle-tested Fourth would take thousands of casualties, with the division holding the line and eventually advancing in the Battle of the Bulge. It is said that the Fourth faced the Germans on more days than any other American division.

 He talked about spending Christmas with a family in Luxembourg and wondered if the line would hold.

A student of history, my dad, often mentioned the largely forgotten Battle of Hurtgen Forest, which lasted months as Germany prepared for a final offensive.

With the crew attached to the general’s headquarters, my dad downplayed the risks, although one of the jobs of the vehicle’s unit was reconnaissance near the front lines.

He noted that the lightly armored vehicle was a sitting duck if a stray tank had been in the area. He said he had one narrow miss when a fuel truck in convoy near the armored car was strafed and set ablaze by an American-built aircraft. The story at the time was that the Germans had captured the plane. I don’t think he bought the party line.

I pass along the memories not only because I am proud and humbled by his service but also because nearly all of his “Greatest Generation” has left us. Dad passed away in 2000.

Their world-changing accomplishments and sacrifices are remembered today, and I hope this pivotal moment in history is never forgotten.