It was a chilly day in Pell City when I went to visit 95-year-old Hilman Prestridge at the Col. Robert L. Howard Veterans Home. It was just a little warmer in the lobby where he sat in his motorized wheelchair waiting for me. I was about to hear first-hand what D-Day was like for one of our American heroes.

Prestridge was from a small family in Lineville, Alabama when he was drafted into the Army in 1943. His basic training was in field artillery and took place at Fort Bragg, NC. But he said he really learned what he was in for when he went to Amphibian School in 1944.

Immediately after his training, he was transferred to Dorchester, England, where he boarded a ship to France. He was about to become one of our brave soldiers who were going to storm Omaha Beach on D-Day.

As Prestridge told me about D-Day, his voice was quiet, and he seemed almost to be reliving that day. He said they arrived at Omaha Beach about 6:30 in the morning when it was just getting daylight. He said it didn’t seem like daylight because the sky was overcast.

Although his division expected backup from bombers, the cloudy sky prevented those bombers from getting close enough. And they missed by five miles. Although it was said that the Americans had better equipment and more men than the Germans on that day, Prestridge said that was wrong on both counts.

He was part of the first wave, going ashore in waist-deep water with higher waves to contend with. Some men went over the side of the landing craft rather than over the retractable bow ramp. However, the water was too deep, and an 18-pound rifle and a 60-pound pack made it almost impossible for them to reach shore.

Although Omaha Beach was technically secured after 12 hours, Prestridge says they were still fighting on the beach on June 7. I asked him if he was frightened. He answered, “Of course, I was. I was scared to death. Then my training kicked in.”

He said he didn’t have time to think, then added, “We went in to do a job, and we done it!”

After Omaha, Prestridge stayed in action for 18 days, surviving on chocolate bars and cold C-rations and without a camp or a fire. He stayed in France until the fighting was over there. Then he and other surviving D-Day troops boarded the S.S. John B. Hood toward the states.

He knew where he was going from there because he already had specific orders for Japan. However, his ship was only three days out from Staten Island when things changed. When the U.S. bomber Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb known as “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, his orders changed, and he landed in New York.

Prestridge showed me a picture of himself with four other surviving D-Day veterans and said, “We thought there were five of us there.”

As his voice broke, he continued, “But when the picture was developed, I saw there were six. And I know why we made it home.”

The picture he showed me was of the five men and a picture of Jesus Christ behind them.

He doesn’t consider himself a hero. Like many other vets I’ve heard, he felt like he was just doing his job. When I asked him what he’d say if he could speak directly to my readers, his answer was specific. He said, “I want them to remember the men who fought for them and to realize freedom isn’t free.”

Hilman Prestridge…D-Day survivor and American hero.