As the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings approaches, three men from north Alabama who served in World War II are once again flying to the site where so many Americans gave their lives.

WHNT News 19 share The story of Otis Brannon, who thanked his fellow passengers before boarding the ship.

“I want to thank everybody here and congratulate everybody for being here,” said Brannon, an amphibious engineer with the 532nd Special Brigade. “This just shows we're still Americans.”

“I mostly maintained Higgins boats. We had three types of boats: Higgins boats, crash boats and LCMs.”

Arthur Hallett, who was stationed in Mannheim for over a year during the war, also spoke about his service.

“Things have changed so I love going back and seeing the places I've travelled to before,” Hallett said. “I did a lot of work when I was in Germany and I have to say I've forgotten some of it, but when I was given a job I tried to do it well.”

A third veteran to visit Normandy was Howard Pollin, who trained as a meteorologist and briefed P-51 fighter pilots on D-Day about the weather over Normandy.

The trip was organized by an organization called Honoring Veteran Legacies.

“It's great to be able to take part in something like this and meet new people in the community, especially seeing that we work for veterans,” said Elaine Oakes, with the group.

“I think that's such an important part of our community, especially when you see people who are currently serving in the military coming out to support the older generation.”

A total of 4,414 Allied soldiers were killed on D-Day, including 2,501 Americans, and over 5,000 were wounded. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied soldiers were killed and 153,000 were wounded.

Austin Shipley is a staff writer for Yellow Hammer News. You can follow him on X. @ShipleyAusten