Remembering D-Day-- Part 5: Pointe du Hoc, Through Minefields and Up Steep Bluffs

His outfit earned fame by fighting through minefields and the steep bluffs.  For his actions, John C. Raaen Jr. was awarded the Silver Star, the third-highest honor for heroism in combat in the United States.

A Georgia native, he rose to the rank of two-star general before retiring from the Army in 1979.

Raaen feels extraordinarily lucky to have lived a long and full life. D-Day, he stresses, was not the highlight; the day he married was.  But keeping young Americans alive through the longest of days comes very close.

--GreGen