Roy Gilreath blows a boatswain’s call that he utilized as a Navy coxswain in World War II. (Brittany Hannah / Rome News-Tribune)
“We didn’t have no idea that anything like D-Day was coming up,” said Gilreath. “We were just kids doing what we was told to do.” Gilreath, a Floyd County resident, recalled that weathermen reported a break in the storms that day. The weather whipped up waves in the English Channel to 15 feet high the previous day.
The World War II invasion which heralded the Battle of Normandy and was aimed at freeing Nazi-occupied Europe had been delayed a day, but on June 6 the call went out, “Away all boats,” and Gilreath was in.
Click here for more from the Rome News-Tribune
Post a Comment