Chicago Veterans Recall D-Day-- Part 5

Hank Rossetti, 89, descended into Normandy by parachute to set up an inland aid station six hours before the beaches were stormed.  He is a regular at his unit's annual reunions and will be at the one held this year in Michigan during today's D-Day observance.  Some of his comrades made it to France today.

He says that recently, reunions have had more spouses and children, than the old soldiers themselves.

Rossetti, 89, was drafted into the Army after only a few months of optometry college.  On D-Day, his first action in the war, he landed in a French field about 4,000 miles from the South Side neighborhood in which he grew up.

"I was pretty scared.  There's no doubt about it."  It was bad enough coming ashore at the beaches with the enemy just in front of you, but imagine parachuting into an area where they are all around you?

Something I'm Very Glad i Never Had to Do.  --GreGen