The following are some excerpts from the story of Joe Reilly's chapter in The Hero Next DoorTM.
Private Joe Reilly didn't walk, nor run, nor ride into W.W. II history. He jumped into the European Theater's biggest battles, as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, the Screaming Eagles.
His first battle jump came in the first hours of the biggest invasion of the 20th Centurythe June 6, 1944, D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France.
"The flak increased as our plane drew close to the Normandy coast and we were ready to get out because we believe in the law of averages where flak is concerned.
"With all my equipment, I knew it wouldn't take long to reach the ground. As the wind fills the chute, you feel the familiar snap on your harness and I quickly said a prayer hoping I didn't have too many blown panels because at 800 or 900 feet, if your main chute has any problems, forget the reserve; you're too close to activate it.
"As soon as you leave a plane, I am always surprised by the sudden change in noise level. It gets quiet for a few seconds, peaceful."
The peaceful quiet of Reilly's jump into the Normandy Invasion didn't last long, for in the distance, the paratrooper could hear sporadic gun and small arms fire.
"It was a dark night and the ground came up to meet me just as my eyes saw some trees outlined in the dimness. As quick as I hit the ground, I got a knife and cut a couple of panels from the chute.."
It was 1:40 a.m., June 6, when Reilly hit that ground behind the Normandy beaches.
"We were all supplied with a little toy called a cricket that makes a click sound when one presses it. I heard a noise nearby and gave two clicks; two clicks answered me so I took the safety off my M-1 rifle. The regimental commander of the 502nd landed close to me. I never met an officer that wasn't friendly in a tight spot.
Reilly and the rest of the troopers from his group hunkered down in the pasture they landed in until the dark got a bit lighter, around 3:20 a.m.
Then, Reilly's long day really began; and in a way, it never really ended.
"It was about 6 a.m. but it seemed it should be at least noon. We knew soon that we'd face the Krauts and, as we came around the bend, I saw the first dead man in a ditch. He was a German with the side of his head blown away and his brains hanging out over the side of his face. It's common knowledge you always remember the first dead man you see but not many more very vividly, unless it is your own troopers."
By then the group was nearing a causeway behind Utah Beach.
"Combat experience makes boys old very quickly and I was about to get another lesson. A wounded trooper lay in an apple orchard at the edge of the village. He was hit bad enough where he couldn't get on his feet. A medic with his Red Cross band and first aid kit bent over him.
"Up a tree, not far away, was a German sniper. He started firing on the medic in the open field. He fired four or five times and forced the medic to retreat.
"I watched the medic run back and start to work on the soldier again. The sniper started to fire again and this time he drew fire from about 10 of usa barrage of probably 60 rounds. I remember being criticized for spending too many rounds on the sniper, but that just made me more trigger-happy.
"When it was over, the medic was dead beside the wounded man. The sniper was riddled before he hit the ground. Lesson taught: The Geneva Convention was an empty fraud. The enemy would kill an unarmed medic as fast as they could. I now knew we could not expect any mercy.
Thankfully the rapid-fire life of a combat soldier leaves little time to ponder much more than the next minute under the physical and mental strain that accompanied every advance.
"Think about carrying 30 or 40 pounds of equipment, getting up and running about 20 yards, keeping a low profile, dropping down, getting up, crossing a road, and crawling along a ditch for another 50 yards on your elbows and knees, peeking up over the ditch to see if any Krauts are nearby. Then, if they outnumber you, quietly digging in and hoping no one has seen or heard you until more support comes up. Then, if support doesn't come, going back and getting help without being detectedall the while wondering if a German bullet has your name on it or if some of your own shells might land close enough to get you.
"I and the rest of the troopers moved five or six miles, dug in several times, lost some good men, watched some wounded men suffer the loss of limbs and blood."
Those images are still vivid as are many of the often-repeated phrases from that day.
"They still tie knots in my stomach: 'Get that sniper!' 'Move out,' 'Oh, God not him!' 'Medic!' and 'We're going to lay down a field of fire right now!'"
"People often ask me how I can remember what happened to me over 50 years ago and I answer that 'if you ask people where they were when (President John F.) Kennedy was shot, they know exactly.' Well, combat is very stressful. If someone was trying to take your life every day, you'd remember some details."
And Reilly vividly remembers the tiring battle over his own exhaustion. " I was constantly hot, angry, hungry and tired.
And how difficult it can be for those soldiers to leave the memories of those battles behind on the battlefied.
It's the sounds of D-Dayof dying men gasping for lifewhich haunt Reilly's memories still.
Without sleep for nearly 36 hours, Reilly pulled his parachute panel over himself in his foxhole just over one of countless hedgerows behind Utah Beach. He lay there trying to sleep and listening to the agonizing sounds of death coming from a nearby, makeshift medic shed filled with badly wounded men.
"Do you know what soldiers cry out when they are dying? Some say it softly, some loudly, they say: 'Mama, mama.'
"From the medic's shed I heard that call again and again; I didn't sleep long. It was indeed the longest day, my first day in the killing fields."
This is but a small part of Joe Reilly's story. Read more about his harrowing jumps into combat from France to Hitler's Eagle Next in Germany, as well as his greatest fall falling in love with the English woman he married in The Hero Next DoorTM.
