War Stories: He Survived Omaha Beach

By Will Dabbs, MD • Published October 27, 2026

John looked like a character on Hee Haw, if a character on Hee Haw was not terribly silly. He carried himself like a grandfather. He was thin and always wore the same basic uniform — a pressed collared shirt buttoned at the neck and wrists, spotlessly clean bib overalls, and a ball cap. He had some chronic medical problems, so I saw him fairly frequently in my medical clinic. He also lived right down the road from me.

soldiers wade ashore at Omaha Beach — American troops wade toward Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944. John hit this same stretch of sand in the first wave at 0630 as a member of the 2d Ranger Battalion. Image: NARA

One day in the clinic, John was complaining about pain in one of his arms. I had him unfasten his shirt sleeve so I could take a look. I was surprised to find that his forearm was a mass of well-healed scars. When I inquired regarding the details, he explained that he carried fragments from a German potato masher grenade in that arm and that it still bothered him from time to time. That conversation led to some of the most fascinating stories.

A Shocking Introduction to War

I presume everybody has seen the extraordinary Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan. That was John’s unit during World War II. He landed on Omaha at 0630 in the morning on 6 June 1944, as a member of the 2d Ranger Battalion. John hit the beach in the first wave.

US Army Rangers make their way up a cliff — Rangers trained relentlessly for assaults on fortified positions like the cliffs of Normandy. That preparation carried John through D-Day and nearly a year of continuous fighting afterward. Image: NARA

John obviously survived that horrible fight across the shingle and the subsequent bloody advance through the Bocage country. He was assigned to a reconnaissance unit in Patton’s 3d Army and met Patton twice. John told me that General Patton had a surprisingly high-pitched voice, but that he was as profane and flamboyant in person as the movie made him out to be.

John once overheard a conversation between Patton and Bradley as they were leaving a command post that went something like this: “Ike doesn’t know how to fight a damn war! If we keep slogging it out with these SOBs face-to-face we will never end this thing. He’s got to hit them hard, and he’s got to hit them in the flanks. That’s what’s going to get us to Berlin!”

author in a WWII uniform and armed with BAR — Kitted out like a 1944 infantryman, the author is armed with the M1918A2 BAR. John carried a rifle like this one through the Bocage, the Hurtgen, and the Bulge.

John lost two toes during the Battle of the Bulge. He also battled his way through the hell of Hurtgen Forest. Throughout it all, he carried an M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle.

One Fruitful Combat Patrol

At one point, John and his squad had moved forward to gather intelligence on German troop dispositions. He found himself crouched down in a drainage ditch beside a rural road as massive German tanks roared by. He had no idea what kind they were, save that they were huge.

BAR with period correct US helmet and hand grenade — The BAR, a steel helmet, and a hand grenade: the essentials of a WWII automatic rifleman. John carried this kind of kit through some of the worst fighting in the European Theater.

A German officer in a motorcycle sidecar eventually pulled up and stopped right in front of him. The man stood up in the sidecar and began glassing the area opposite him with what was obviously a very nice set of binoculars. John found himself covetous of those binoculars.

Looking left and right to make sure that there were no more German tanks within sight, he stood up, drew a bead, and killed both the German officer and his driver with a full magazine from his BAR. Scampering up into the road, he retrieved the binoculars before leaping back into the ditch. His patrol leader then ran up cursing like a sailor.

M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle that was carried by the author's friend — John emptied a full magazine from this BAR to drop a German officer and his motorcycle driver during a reconnaissance patrol. He came away with a fine pair of binoculars and a furious lieutenant.

The Lieutenant explained in stark terms that their mission was intended to be stealthy and that John’s actions would likely bring down the full weight of the German Wehrmacht upon their heads. He said his patrol leader berated him viciously. Then he got a mischievous look on his face and said, “But I’ve still got those binoculars!”

The Voyage Home

When finally the war ended, John got tagged to make the trek back across the Atlantic aboard a troopship. Mid-ocean they encountered a ghastly storm that rolled the vessel relentlessly. John told me that was the most terrified he had been during the war. He believed that, after all he had been through, now he was going to drown in the middle of the frigid Atlantic Ocean. The storm eventually cleared, and, aside from some seasickness, he was no worse for the wear.

WWII era German binoculars — German military binoculars of the kind John liberated from a Wehrmacht officer in a motorcycle sidecar. He risked blowing his patrol’s cover to get them, and never regretted it.

John returned to his tiny little Southern town to a hero’s welcome. His mom threw a party, inviting friends and family from all around to celebrate his coming home unscathed from the war. He said they stayed up late visiting until everyone grew tired and gradually made their way back to their own homes. John’s dad wasn’t in the picture for some reason, so only he and his mother remained.

His mom then took him to his bedroom. She had maintained the space just as it had been two years before when he had left for Ranger training. Once she had him tucked in, she returned to her own bedroom, changed into her night clothes, and crawled in bed. For what happened next, I’ll use John’s own words:

“I lay there in the dark staring at the ceiling, and I just couldn’t do it. So I got up quietly, tipped out into the backyard, and got a shovel out of the woodshed. Then I dug a hole and crawled down into it, because I found that, after nearly a year under fire, I could no longer sleep above ground.”

His mom heard the noise and came out to investigate in her nightgown. When she saw her young son curled up in that hole and realized for the first time what he had been through and how it had changed him, she wept. We honestly just have no idea…

Fallout

When I knew John, he was well into his 80s. His wife had already passed years before, and he lived alone. I once asked him if he had struggled to cope with his wartime experiences. He just smiled.

soldiers on landing craft on their way to the beach — The last quiet minutes before the ramp went down. John would survive what came next, but as his mother learned the night he came home, the war came back with him. Image: NARA

He said that the nightmares started soon after he came home. He would wake up in the night screaming about the things he had seen and the things he had done. He said it used to scare his poor wife to death.

John said that he still had those nightmares despite its having been more than half a century since the war. He said he would sometimes wake up alone in the night screaming. Then he said that he would realize who he was and where he was and that he was safe, and he would just go back to sleep.

Ruminations

John would have melted into any typical Southern crowd. He didn’t look like anything special. However, the man came home from World War II with two Purple Hearts among his many other combat decorations, having helped wrest control of Europe from a monster.

John spent his professional life in the timber business. He was an active member of his local church and enjoyed tending his expansive vegetable garden. I waved every day I saw him as I passed his house enroute to work. He died at age 88 after a long fruitful life. John was a invisible hero, a true warrior’s warrior hiding, as it were, in plain sight. I was proud to call him my friend.

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