I met Harold in the cemetery above Omaha Beach (Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France) on June 5, 1994, one day before the official commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. He was standing alone amid 9,387 American graves.

It had taken 50 years for Harold to return to Omaha Beach. He had never talked about June 6, 1944, not even to his brother, his closest confidante. "My brother is dead now and we never had that talk so I'm back here to make some sense of this."

Harold enlisted in the U.S. Army upon graduating from high school, 1943, in South Bend, Ind. "It was just automatic ... you graduate, join the war effort against the Nazis and Japan. It seemed like our whole town was working to end the war and bring our soldiers home."

Omaha Beach (Colleville-sur-Mer) is as deep as it is long and wide open. Behind are high sand dunes and bluffs, then flat farmland and those German cannons focused on the English Channel. Omaha Beach was a baited trap of barricades, mines, mortar, artillery, machine gun fire and barbed wire. A video game nightmare, but this was real! It was next to impossible to survive the June 6, 1944, landing. This would be the beginning of the end of World War II and it would cost unimaginable loss of young men, for many, their first battle.

Harold began slowly, pausing after each thought. "We were in our landing craft and must have taken a direct hit ... then I'm in the water ... I have nothing ... no gun, no pack, no belt, no helmet ... just my shirt and pants ... guys all around, some gone ... somehow I got to the beach ... dragged myself up on the wet sand ... and just laid there ... bullets coming, no stopping, mortar ... grabbed a dead buddy's rifle and just played dead with some others until it got dark ... then a Lieutenant had a good idea and moved us away from shore."

For a long while, Harold was quiet, just staring down at the beach. It seemed as though that one particular day, June 6, 1944, had been worse for him than his final year yet to fight.

Harold and the other survivors of the June 6th landings were held back by the U.S. Army for two weeks to recover from the hellish barrage by the Germans. These young men would go on to battle their way through Europe, fighting in towns, on prairies, over mountains and on farms, in rain and snow until it ended for Europe in May, 1945.

For quite a few veterans of war, it seemed easier to go on with their lives if they blocked out the war years. Some would suffer with survivor guilt during their lives, others with continuous rumination and nightmares, some used alcohol to excess to ease their discomfort. Some say they were just lucky or it wasn't their time to go. When you realize soldiers in war are targets for death on a regular basis and witness hellish, frightening battles, it is not difficult to understand why they do not want to go back there, in their heads, when it's over.

Harold found a source of comfort for himself in the forest! After World War II, he earned a degree in forestry and worked as a ranger on horseback for 40 years. He said, "You cannot deny the existence of God when you spend 40 years in the forest and see how everything living in the forest needs and works with each other."

I was touched by this observation and reminded Harold, "Just as our forests need protection from disease, so does our country need protection from tyranny when it threatens." After a long hug and a big thank you for his team effort in ridding the world of tyranny, Harold left the cemetery. Remember, when you pass a veteran and he/she proudly wears their military insignia, give them a big hug!

Terri O'Rourke is a Coeur d'Alene resident.