Local WWII veteran recalls storming Normandy Beach

As many Americans fire up the grill, head to the freedom parades and wave the American flag this Fourth of July Weekend, many may want to salute the servicemen and women who have made many sacrifices for American independence.

World War II veteran Lloyd Gneiting said he enjoyed his time serving in the military, but isn’t sure he could relive some of his experiences.

“I served for four years as a combat engineer,” he said. “I volunteered for some of it, and was drafted for the other.”

With five Bronze Stars, Gnieting has witnessed things that most of us have only read in history books.

“Coming out on the Normandy Beach head is the worst sight a person could ever see,” he said.

Serving as a combat engineer, he and his comrades made way for several infantry divisions across all three branches of the military and was there on the D-Day invasion on Normandy Beach. He says not even ISIS can beat what he saw at the Holocaust concentration camps.

“Twelve miles almost… we were two hours too late,” Gneiting said. “They gassed them. Took their clothes and left them for dead.”

Gneiting said he was one of many soldiers who dug trenches to bury bodies of Holocaust victims. He says these are the things he thinks about on the Fourth of July, and is thankful that he lives in a country that values freedom and independence.

“Before, I couldn’t express any of the things that happened to me,” he said. “But I knew that the best thing to do would be to talk about them, so people would know what we fought for and why.”