My great uncle, Emmitt Dooley was in World War II. He was a PFC or private first class. He was in the army three years. He was drafted but wanted to go serve his country in war. When he got there things WERE a different story.

He trained in England for over a year to prepare for the invasion. To get to Normandy they sailed on the biggest carrier ship, Queen Elizabeth. They planned to attack on June 5th, but the water was too rough, so they stayed on the ship overnight. They left the next day and landed June 6th, 1944 on Omaha Beach. Two days before the landing was his birthday, he was tweny one years old.

Emmitt Dooley was on the first boat, of the first wave, to hit Omaha Beach. When he got off the boat he was carrying his B.A.R. or browning automatic rifle, 40 pounds of T.N.T. and 40 pounds of pole charge. It was his job to run up to the pill box and stick the cell charge load and set off the T.N.T. A pill box is what the Germans were in on the cliffs shooting down on the Americans on the beach.

There were 600 yards of level beach. When he got off the boat it was low tide. The men had to jump in the water and carry the T.N.T. their rifle and ammo over their head to the beach with out getting them wet. As the tide started to come in all the short men drowned.

July 11th, 1944 Emmitt got shot on his wedding anniversary. He was about two feet away from a machine gun and got shot in the head, he got one in the thigh, and one in the arm. One bullet penetrated his helmet and got him along the top of the head. The other bullet went straight through his helmet and between the helmet and the lining and didn't injure him. He thought he was going to get to go home but they patched him up and sent him back fighting. The second time he got shot it was Sept 1st. He got shot in the chest and it went out his back. His buddy came running up to him and said, "Dooley, are you hurt bad?" Emmitt said, "yea, bad enough to go sleep between two white sheets in the hospital."

For food they ate sea rations on the boat and K rations while fighting in the hedge rows. K rations came in a box about the size of a popcorn box. They also ate D-bars. D-bars were hard chocolate that had all the vitamins and minerals you needed. It was about the size of a bar of soap. You didn't always have time to eat it Emmitt recalls. Just about the time you'd get the thing unwrapped the commanding officer would yell "come on men lets go." They would have to throw it on the ground and go fight.

The soldiers slept in fox holes which were holes dug in the ground. That's the reason the army men of W.W.II were called "Dog Faces." They lived like dogs.

One night they got in their fox holes. There were two men in every fox hole. One man stood guard two hours while the other man slept. Bombs started blowing over head and Emmitt said to his fox hole buddy, Edward Jockovick, his assistant gunner, "they're getting kinda close." Edward said, "yea, they sure are." About that time a bomb landed in their fox hole and it killed Edward but not Emmitt.

Emmitt remembers the day the war ended. He was pulling guard duty in England on an American post. It was November 1945. He didn't get to go home right away but when he did get out of the Army he received eight metals.

2 Campaign Stars - for being in two campaigns

Metal Spear - for landing on D-day on Omaha Beach

Combat Badge - for being shot at in combat

Unit citation - everybody in the unit that landed D-day got one

Bronze Star - for bravery

Good Conduct Metal - for being good

French Metal - received from France for helping them win the war

Purple Heart - two of them for being wounded twice

Two thirds of the soldiers that landed on Omaha Beach died. The men who landed on D-day were very great heros and Emmitt Dooley was one of them.

Emmett Dooley