GETTYSBURG, Pa. — On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 soldiers from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada fought in Normandy, France for what would be known as the D-Day invasion.
Eighty years later, hundreds of people gathered at the Eisenhower Farm in Gettysburg to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice made by soldiers on that day.
“You don’t want to lose that [memory], the sacrifices that they made," said Carroll Stansbury. "You don’t want that to be forgotten.”
The date hits close to home for Carroll and Howard Stansbury, who drove up from Maryland to tour the Eisenhower Farm. Howard's uncle and father both fought on Omaha Beach on the day of the invasion.
“My uncle, Joseph Micale, was in the Signal Corp on Omaha Beach," said Howard Stansbury. "And my dad, he was a captain of the Liberty Ship."
"[Uncle Joe] never spoke of what he did until we went to his home in Tennessee and interviewed him on camera," he added. "He didn't have a problem talking about it, including the Battle of the Bulge, until he liberated the Jewish concentration camps, at which time he cried like a baby."
People spent the morning touring General Eisenhower’s farmhouse and later participated in D-Day Battlefield in a Box, which visualized the battle that unfolded on the beaches of Normandy.
“Part of it makes me want to cry," said Doug Stout, who is visiting from Ohio. "Part of it makes me awful proud of those men and what they did for us that day, and for the people of France and Europe.”
The National Park Service will be holding commemorative programs for park visitors until Sunday afternoon. Park rangers say the goal is to make sure the stories of General Eisenhower and the 160,000 D-Day soldiers are never forgotten.
“We’re at the point now where many of the people who knew these men are gone," said Ranger Dan Vermilya. "So it is upon us, the living, to keep their stories going.”
You can see the full list of D-Day commemorative programs in Gettysburg on the National Park Service website.