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closeWARNER ROBINS — Sixty-five years ago today, Pvt. Stanley “Pee Wee” Lester found himself in over his head in the waters off Omaha Beach. On top of that, he was on his own.
He was part of the historic D-Day invasion, when Allied forces invaded Europe, gaining a foothold in Normandy and ultimately defeating Nazi Germany.
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About D-Day
On June 6, 1944, the “D-Day” invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.
Some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the Allied capture of Normandy.
— Associated Press
Exhibit tells the story
The Museum of Aviation invites the public to honor the 65th anniversary of D-Day with a visit to its newest award-winning exhibit, the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the Air Invasion of Normandy. The exhibit highlights actions of paratroopers who trained at Fort Benning and jumped from C-47 troop carriers into battle zones over Europe.
The 6,000-square-foot walk-through exhibit has received the 2009 U.S. Air Force History and Museums Program’s Air Force Heritage Award for “fostering a better understanding and appreciation of the Air Force, its history and accomplishments.”
The exhibit includes a cutaway fuselage of a C-47 troop carrier showing paratroopers and crew ready to make their drop, and a full C-47 aircraft suspended 22 feet over the entire exhibit. Thousands of the aircraft were used in the D-Day invasion.
The exhibit also includes many D-Day artifacts, weapons and uniforms, and a movie made especially for the exhibit titled “Papa Said: We Should Never Forget.” The film recounts paratroopers’ experiences and the gratitude of the French people for U.S. and Allied actions to restore freedom to their country.
The exhibit is free and open every day from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the museum’s new World War II Exhibit Hangar. For more information call the museum at 926-6870, or visit www.museumofaviation.org.
— Jake Jacobs
Lester was approaching the shores of France early that morning in 1944 in a large landing craft loaded with weapons and four half-track vehicles.
The craft ran into entanglements that the German army had set out in the waters off the beach.
“I was checking the opticals to see the depth and jumped in,” Lester recalled earlier this week in the cool confines of the World War II Exhibit Hangar at the Museum of Aviation. “The water was over my head. Then the landing craft pulled back and I wasn’t with my outfit, the 65th Tank Company of the 4th Infantry Division.
“I didn’t have a weapon on me, just a gas mask.”
He made it ashore and spent the next few hours pulling out bodies of soldiers.
“I don’t remember thinking about the danger. ... I was pulling guys out of the water and taking them to the beach. A medic stopped me because I was covered in blood and had me pull off my shirt and pants. He wanted to see if I was wounded. I had to prove I wasn’t hit or anything. I was just covered in blood, I was wet all over.”
Lester said he stayed on the beach until about 3 p.m. that day, when he finally rejoined his outfit.
His actions did not go unnoticed. He was awarded the Silver Star for his efforts in the face of enemy fire. But he did not know about the award until months later, he said, when he read a letter from his mother in which she told him.
Lester was in an ordnance outfit, one that brought new tanks or other vehicles to the front and took others back for repairs. He went through France and Germany, got wounded and was sent to England on a hospital ship and later to the United States. He was in a hospital in Thomasville when the war ended, in May 1945.
His military career started when he was drafted in February 1943. He was working in a grocery store in Athens at the time. He reported to Fort McPherson in Atlanta and from there went to Camp Croft outside Spartanburg, S.C., for basic training. The 13-week training was shortened to seven weeks, he said, and from South Carolina he went to Pennsylvania, boarded a ship and went across the Atlantic to Casablanca in Morocco. From there, he went to Sicily, and on Thanksgiving Day 1943 he landed in Liverpool, England. The next six months were spent preparing for the historic invasion.
After the end of the war, Lester re-enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and he was sent to Dobbins Air Base in Marietta. There, he met his wife, Betty. They’re still together.
Lester stayed in the service a good while.
“I retired in 1973. I was in for 30 years, three months and 27 days,” he said. “I never lost a penny, and I was never AWOL.”
He served in Wiesbaden, Germany, during the 1948 Berlin Airlift, through the Korean War, and one of his last assignments was in materiel control at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. He ended his career at Robins Air Force Base.
Why so long in the military?
“I had a job and I had a family,” he said matter of factly. “I was real fortunate and retired as E-7, not bad for someone who just had a third-grade education.”
One of his sons became a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Lester said, and retired with 26 years of service.
Looking back on his D-Day and World War II experiences, Lester said all the lives lost make it somewhat a sad story.
“The people I was with came from all walks of life, but I really didn’t get to know them that much. You train with them and that’s about all. There was only one guy I met later. He was in Marietta and had lost both legs,” he said. “You think you’re one of the fortunate ones to have survived.”
He admits he’s reluctant at times discussing the past.
“I don’t talk about it much, but people come up to me and talk when they see me wearing my veteran’s cap. You won’t get much talking to me,” he said.
But he is proud of his service, and he has volunteered over the years to help with the Museum of Aviation. He’s donated World War II-era memorabilia to the museum’s latest exhibit.
“It’s important that we honor these veterans and remember the significance of World War II,” said Bob Dubiel, director of the museum. “We get busy in our lives, and we don’t think about these things sometimes. Anniversaries like this give us time to reflect on the sacrifices of our fathers and grandfathers who (are responsible for) the freedoms we have today.”
To contact writer Jake Jacobs, call 923-6199, extension 305.
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